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CHARLES BOEMLiv; 

KIRKWOdfi , sx.Louis,^, 



MAN. 



A PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISE ON THE 
HUMAN RACE, 



IN THEEE BOOKS, 



By CHARLES BOEMLER. 



II y a dans le monde bien pen de chores but 
lesqnelles nn honnfcte borome puisse reposer 
agrtiabiement son ame on sa penste. 

— ClIAMFOBT. 



ST. LOUIS: 
WM. M. ANDERSON. 

1889. 



**** 



^ 



7 



Gift 
Author 






TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Preface, 5 



BOOK I. 

Man as a Natural Being. 



BOOK II. 
Man as an Intellectual Being. 

CHAP. 

I. Man as Man, 33 

II. The State, 44 

III. His Erudition, 60 

IV. His Misery and Happiness, ... 75 
V. The Intellect 112 



BOOK III. 

Man as a Moral Being. 

I. His Object as Man, 167 

II. He is By Nature Base, .... 174 

III. The Conscience 200 

IV. Bewards and Punishment, . . . 203 
V. Keligion, 221 



PREFACE. 



In Countries, as the Occidental, where the 
religion teaches that Man is Lord over every- 
thing, and that beyond him and Grod there is 
nothing worthy of our serious consideration ; 
and in an age when materialistic views are 
swaying men and things ; when the social 
standing is without virtue as a basis to rest 
on, and the marital tie but a connecting link 
with anarchy; when Mammon and their bellies 
are the gods of men; when Christ and his 
religion are but a piece of mockery to reach 
another end, a stricter moral Code becomes a 
matter of divine right. To this end, therefore, 
laboring from a natural and moral impulse, 
does the author lay this work before the world. 

St. Louis, March, 1888. 



BOOK I. 

MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 



1. This Globe is a huge Carcass, on and near the 
surface of which are bred by the heat of the Sun all 
living creatures, whether animate or inanimate; and, ' 
according to all scientific researches, it is the only 
part of the Universe that has living beings in it. 
Animals are bred from the earth and from the sub- 
stance of each other, the Sun being in all cases the 
generator. The same matter that constitutes the one, 
also constitutes the other, the only difference being 
in its form. 

2. Our Globe, in consequence of its distance from 
the Sun, has been so influenced by it since its own 
heat has left its surface (for we have no evidence 
that the interior heat of our planet has any influence 
on the living beings on its surface), that man and all 
animals are constituted as we see them. Should the 
Globe again undergo a radical change, of course this 
would cause an annihilation of everything on it in its 
present form. We see that heat causes everything to 
come into existence, and as the Sun is the only source 
of heat, on which our artificial heat is undoubtedly 
dependent, it looks wise to regard him as the Creator 
of all things, and therefore, by the way, if worship be 
in order, to worship him, as the American Indian 
does, and as all fire- worshippers regard fire. 

3. In all existences there are two divisions that are 
visible, the organic and the inorganic. Taking it in 



8 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

a closer sense, there is but one existence, and what 
we call divisions or classes relates only to their re- 
spective forms; and every existence contains an organ 
more or less developed; how otherwise could a change 
occur in its form ? 

But the only bodies that have self-motion in 
them, are those that have intellect or instinct; all 
other existences in their growth and vitality being in 
an adhesive state to the earth itself. Yet man and 
all other animals adhere also to -the earth and move 
around in its atmosphere in the same manner as the 
roots of the tree move around in its soil, and can no 
more extricate himself than they can. The intellect 
and instinct seem to have been given to man and all 
animals as a means of simply greater action, to ans- 
wer more ends than other existences. 

4. Man eats the animal and the animal eats the 
man ; thus the one partakes of the other. In this 
way they mingle each other's blood. It is impossible 
for man and the lower animal to be independent of 
each other, for like takes to like. The blood of all 
animals is blood, the difference being only in the 
quality. Neither do we have different names for the 
bodily organs of different animals. 

5. The animal serves to the production of the plant 
in tilling the ground, and supplying the soil with ma- 
nure ; whilst the plant serves to the existence of the 
animal. As relates to the benefit that man does for 
the plant, he does more for it than any other animal 
So, for the services that the lower animal, for in- 
stance, the domestic animal does for him, man is com- 
pelled to supply it with food, keep it in a state of 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 9 

cleanliness, and is thus compelled to serve it in a 
more menial capacity than what it serves man, so 
equally are all things balanced eventually. 

When one part of matter undergoes a change, an- 
other is benefited by such change. The different 
natural productions are only a change as they have 
taken place in a part of the whole ; but they are not 
thereby in the least independent of one another, or 
disconnected from the whole. 

6. In the whole kingdom, the different species of 
animals bear a relationship to each other, and un- 
doubtedly had but one origin ; this origin still exists in 
every creature, but the different capacities have been 
assumed only by natural selection in consequence of 
the necessity of things. Every production of nature 
is but the result of one all-powerful force existing in 
nature, to which every existence is subject. The dif- 
ferent forces and capacities of existences arise from 
the different degrees of this force that is in them. 
The result of its action is birth and death in infinitum 
— mere transfiguration in substance. All substance 
is but one, and it is therefore improper to use the 
word in the plural. After the breath leaves the body, 
the latter is nothing but dead substance —like wood 
or stone —the moist part of it having evaporated or 
mingled with the atmosphere, the rest having become 
dust. 

It is by continual gradation that man has reached 
the position he now occupies, and his vaunting that 
he stands above all things surrounding him arises out 
of his conceit and vanity, which also are necessary 
characteristics, especially with the common man. We 
praise a man of humility, because he closely adheres 



10 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

to the original type, and treats with contempt any- 
thing that tends to draw a line between man and the 
rest of the Universe. Superiority only lies in the 
degree of mental capacity, as classified by man. In 
nature the different animals possess a different degree 
of mental capacity, in consequence of which they 
assume a different relation to each other, the one is 
king and the other subject, etc. Ambition in man is 
nothing else but that by which the force in nature 
makes him assume a higher position in life as com- 
pared to the rest of animals. It is the vigor of his 
desires that drives him on to conquests and a high 
intellectual position. And what is desire but an 
acting of the force in nature to preserve each species 
in its particular position ? 

7. In all his workmanship, man is employed only on 
those materials that he is surrounded by, not created 
by himself any more than he himself is; the perpetual 
store for application in workmanship, either by handi- 
craft or the mind, is homogeneous to himself. He 
builds as the beaver does, and eats as the dog does; 
he propagates as the rabbit does, and fights as the 
tiger does. His whole efforts, either in the direct 
necessaries of life or the arts, are only a means to 
maintain his present condition; the pleasures of life 
are invented by nature, through man, as being as 
much of a necessity for his present position as is 
bodily exercise for his animal life. His high position 
requires that the time that is not absolutely neces- 
sary in which to earn means for sustenance, should 
be consumed by the diversion that his ingenuity 
invents. 

All animals love their time of play as well as man, 
either with their fellows or by themselves. Such 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 11 

diversion is always in proportion to the degree of 
intelligence. Nature keeps every animal so continu- 
ally engaged, either bodily or intellectually, to make 
life fleeting, that before we have disposed of one thing, 
we are about to engage in another. Man's existence 
is nothing but animal employment. 

8. The whole animal kingdom is nothing but one 
family, subdivided into genuses and species. Man 
admits his relationship to the rest of animals by call- 
ing himself an Animal. All animals are created by 
the same laws, and also destroyed by the same laws; 
the one is subject as well as the other to the inevi- 
table decrees of fate, from whose hard and relentless 
execution the highest intellectual being is no more 
exempt than the lowest insect. 

9. It is reflections like these, and convinced that 
they are correct, that prevent man from assuming that 
vanity that is so characteristic of him ; nothing better 
reminds human nature of its insignificance than to 
compare it to an animal of an inferior grade. The 
conceit and vanity with which he has during all ages 
inflated himself has and does lead to those disappoint- 
ments in life that too frequently bring a victim to the 
grave. The wise man sees that he was born as all 
animals are, sees that he must perish as all animals 
do; from these he sees that his present existence 
must be that of an animal, and therefore lives accord- 
ingly. 

10. The works of the intellect are alone what draw 
a line of distinction between man and the lower 
animal ; but with the majority of mankind, it is noth- 



12 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

ing but intelligence serving the same purposes as 
the instinct does with those animals that lack it. 

11. There is even a friendship between man and 
certain of the lower animals, so that many men, for 
instance, prefer the company of their dogs to that of 
their fellow men, just as a man will prefer his par- 
ticular friends to the people in general. Some 
animals possess certain qualities, such as fidelity, 
Obedience, cleanliness and others, that take the place 
of intellectuality, and which, therefore, make thein 
very agreeable to us. The Great Frederick was better 
entertained by his dogs than by "that dainued race,' 7 
and so every great Frederick says. The fact that 
every organic being is as much complete in itself as 
man is, is what makes the natural equality so mani- 
fest. The same water that quenches our thirst, also 
quenches that of the dog, and the same stroke that 
inflicts pain on the naked body of the man, also in- 
flicts pain on the bare body of the horse. Hence a 
man of humanity is as much shocked at the cruelty 
done to an animal as he would be were it one of his 
fellow men or himself; he feels the blow himself, be- 
cause he and the animal are one. From this equality 
it follows that the lower animal is justly entitled to 
our protection ; it is not a favor to it, but it is a right 
which it can claim, especially considering the friend- 
ship and services that many animals favor us with. 

12. If man had an active brain for thinking, with- 
out being confused by the illogical reasoning of 
school-men and the folly that his religious prejudices 
have caused him, he would clearly see and recognize 
the close resemblance there is between all bodies, 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 13 

animate or inanimate ; how they are brought into the 
world, all thrown in together, intended to breed and 
to propagate on each other; every animal and body at 
every movement of its life being born and dying. 

13. The plant has its desires as well as the organic 
body ; it has its stages of health and prosperity ; it is 
even sexual. We see that the plant, for want of 
moisture or fertile ground, becomes sick and before 
many days is dead, in the same sense as an animal. 
We even undertake to treat it as a physician would 
his patient. 

14. The fuel that is placed in the furnace to cause 
steam to put the engine in motion is the same, arti- 
ficially, as the victuals placed in the stomach to 
produce blood, which is also heat, to put the human 
organization in motion. 

15. "So animal can exist long without a proper use 
of its members, and if the struggle for existence does 
not yield sufficient exercise of the body, planned exer- 
cise must be resorted to. It is a fact that all plants, 
as well, require movement by the wind, in order to 
cause the sap (blood) to better circulate through the 
body, and, if entirely deprived of it, will eventually 
die; a plant having suffered greatly from a storm or 
sickness seems to become regenerated and prospers so 
much the better, in the same manner as an animal 
after it has recovered from a sickness, or as the human 
mind after it has undergone great suffering and 
anguish, has thereby become more purified and 
strengthened. 



14 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

16. With the exception of the time necessary to 
supply the male with seinen, he is always prepared to 
have intercourse with the other sex. So it is also 
with the female, after she has disposed of her young, 
so that they can provide for themselves, and has had 
sufficient time to let her propagating organs become 
restored. Thus it seems that there is no time allowed 
to pass away without begetting; in fact, animal exis- 
tence means nothing but begetting and producing, 
and when this is impossible, caused by age or imbe- 
cility, nature has no need of the individual, and now 
lets him perish; or, from that time, at least with man, 
she probably uses him to assist those who have taken 
his place. 

17. In all the attention shown by a man to a 
woman, or vice versa, one can see nothing but the 
preliminary movements leading to propagation. This 
is even somewhat noticeable in play between boys and 
girls. All the gifts made by the one sex to the other 
mean nothing else than to tempt the one lover to be 
within reach of sexual enjoyment of the other. 

18. Excepting for the purpose of cleanliness, all 
clothes about the body, a well made toilet and orna- 
ments, are nothing but the bestial passion in opera- 
tion to attract the other sex. Woman shows this 
passion better than man, for she makes the attractive- 
ness of her body her next greatest employment, as 
long as the sexual desire lasts, and there is the 
least ray of hope to have it quieted. He who dis- 
closes the greatest passion for attracting, thereby 
discloses the greatest animalism. The fop and cox- 
comb are never considered men, because their whole 
vocation in dressing betrays the beast. 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 15 

19. The reason why lovers carry on their amours 
secretly, and steal their glances when in the presence 
of others, is because they are playing the lower ani- 
mal, and thereby are depriving themselves of the dig- 
nity that man as a being of morality is entitled to; 
there is nothing so degrading to man as to be remind- 
ed that m this respect he stands on the same level as 
the brute ; there can be nothing more humiliating to 
a man of intellectuality than to be called a lover, be- 
cause here his whole intellectuality is forgotten. 
Sexual love belongs to brutes, and not to men. 

So the blushing of the bride at being reminded of 
her nuptials, or of a beautiful young woman when 
stared at by men, and the offence that mankind gen- 
erally take in being reminded of sexual intercourse, 
even if it be with one of the other sex to whom they 
are lawfully married, are from the fact that it indi- 
rectly charges them with propagation— animalism. 

20. The reason why a woman's beauty is so strik- 
ing at first, is because it is sexual, and therefore acts on 
the animal part of man; but when the animal part, 
the desire for sexual connection, has ceased to act, he 
will not be affected by it as before. But the beauty of 
a man is not so sexual, and will therefore not have that 
same physical effect; the effect will be to cause awe 
mingled with sexual admiration ; such beauty will be 
considered such, more or less, even by those who have 
no power of propagation, and is lasting, whereas 
sexual beauty lasts only as long as it is necessary to 
attract one of the other sex, whether it be in the male 
or the female. And as there are women who have 
very little or no sexual beauty, in some cases even a 
certain intellectual beauty, so there are men who have 
nothing but sexual beauty. 



16 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

21. Though they be apparently opposite, yet all 
beings and things have a similarity, even intellectually 
and morally; for instance the just and the wicked are 
both punished, the just man being punished for his 
justness simply because it is out of order according 
to the state af things; the poet and the lunatic have 
something very similar, and the wise man and the 
fool; the two latter instances on the same principle as 
the former. 

22. The animal always predominates over the man; 
the animal is man directly, whilst man is natural only 
indirectly; the latter is civilization, nature's secondary 
object. Thus we see that as soon as the animal nature 
and the intellectual nature come into conflict, the man 
must yield to the animal. 

23. It is a rare occurence in the creations of nature 
to gift a man with such high and extraordinary intel- 
lectuality as to be able to control the animal that is in 
him; and there never was and never will be a being 
born in whom the animal is completely subdued, for 
this would be a contradiction in itself. Intellectuality 
is only an adjunct, for it never was the object of 
nature for man to transcend his boundaries as a 
civilized animal. 

24. The two sexes seek each other under the con- 
tinual error that in possessing each other, they obtain 
the happiness that is sought; the lover has not the 
remotest idea of the real object that lies in the admir- 
ation he has for his mistress. Man, rationally, is un- 
willing to assume the responsibility of his young, and, 
therefore, to compel him to produce them requires him 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 17 

to be blindfolded, the animal power in him being so 
great that for the moment it commands the intellect 
to be silent, until the act has been performed, when it 
again comes forward and charges the will with bestial- 
ity. Only under such a delusion and tyrannical control 
that the will has over the intellect, can propagation 
be reached with an intellectual being. 

Many an individual, under the belief that sexual 
connection is bliss, finds to his misfortune that in a 
few years' time his labors of so-called pleasure have 
fully satisfied the demands of nature, to the extent of 
having created for her a half dozen or more of beings 
that he is actually not in a condition to supply with 
the necessary daily food; he then first sees how much 
of the beast and how little of the man he is. Take 
man as an animal, and in one sense he stands lower 
than the lower animal ; take him as a being of intel- 
lectuality, and he has not his equal, such a contradict 
tion is he in himself. 

25. Hunger and the desire for sexual intercourse 
are the two greatest powers on earth, in man as well 
as in every other animal; this must be so, since it is 
on these that rests the existence of all beings, by 
virtue of the former the individual is preserved, and 
by virtue of the second, the species is preserved. It 
is on this principle, namely, that nature demands that 
her claims must first be satisfied, that a lover will for- 
sake and abandon all moral and intellectual ties 
merely to answer this end— even when he sees dis- 
grace and contempt foreshadowing his future career 
Of course, I am now speaking of animals, not men; 
there are, undoubtedly, here and there, human beings 
who, with a powerful will, resist the demand of prop- 



18 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

agating, but yet who can never decline that of hunger 
unless they contemplate a voluntary death. 

26. The same law of nature tbat causes and com- 
pels a connection of the two sexes, out of which 
springs a human being, also causes and compels the 
different particles of sand to connect themselves, from 
which comes stone. 

27. See, for instance, the equality that exists be- 
tween man and the lower animal, by noticing that aJl 
his actions drift into the best manner for propagating, 
subsistence or self-defence; entertainments among 
people of fashion are to bring together the different 
animals of their acquaintance, or strangers as visitors 
to make acquaintance, thereby opening the avenue to 
a conjugal relation. Tou there find that the conver- 
sation is not on what is moral or civilized; not on what 
would be the best means of ennobling themselves, in 
the proper sense of the word, but it is on the best 
woman, marrying, money, ibegetting children, the 
fastest horse or the best dog ; everything to disclose 
the beast, but nothing to reform the man. Such peo- 
ple only make an outward appearance of civilization 
and arts ; we there find all the luxuries and articles 
of art that the ingenuity and genius of man has been 
able to invent; we there find in their exterior de- 
portment some of the finest manners, from all of 
which, if one did not know the contrary, he would 
suppose that here alone is the civilized and the moral 
man ; that here alone art is recognized and genius 
compensated as it deserves. But upon closer exam- 
ination, it will be seen that all the difference there 
is between this class and the lower class is, that whilst 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 19 

the latter do tlieir acts more openly, on the principle 
that they have nothing to jeopardize or lose, the for- 
mer do their acts, such as are bestial, in secresy and 
silence; that, although their parlors are filled with 
statues and paintings, there is no more true taste or 
judgment of art in the owner than there is in the 
commonest cobbler, who has never seen any. For 
genius in art and philosophy we have to seek other 
abodes. 

Wealth has that advantage that it doe» not tempt 
its possessor to little thefts and certain criminalities 
that the poor man is tempted to, and also enables its 
possessor to show high-handed acts of charity and a 
spirit for advancing education, if he possesses such a 
heart. But human nature in all classes is the same ; 
if the poor man had the rich man's purse, he too 
would be charitable and benevolent, and if the rich 
man had the poor man's wants, he too would pilfer 
and steal ; every station of life has its good qualities 
and its bad qualities. It depends on every man's par- 
ticular individuality, whether that be in a palace or a 
hut, whether he is to stand on the level of a Genius 
or on the level of an ordinary human animal. 

28. The lower animal has a social instinct as well as 
man, though not so developed; therefore the lower 
animals congregate in groups as man does in society, 
doubtless on the same principle, namely, that of self- 
defence. The greater the lack of intellect, the greater 
is the social instinct, and vice versa. 

29. There is certainly no more savage creature in 
the whole animal kingdom than man; his brutality is 
exceeded by nothing. To such a degree does he 



20 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

carry his fiendishness, that he is even compelled to 
authorize certain other of his fellow men to protect 
and guard the rest of mankind against evil-doers of 
all kinds; and even they, the public ministers and 
constables of justice, in their turn, require to be 
guarded against. And yet, with all his foresight in 
the enactment of laws to meet all the exigencies im- 
aginable, with the equipment of a full force of police 
to scrutinize every man's deportment as he passes 
along the public thoroughfares, in the very midst of 
what he calls a highly civilized community, how does 
he not fail to prevent and guard against the brutali- 
ties and crimes that are continually being committed! 
Is there anything more brutal than wars, where 
thousands of innocent human beings are slaughtered 
to satisfy the whimsicalities of probably a blockhead 
or simpleton, being in the position of a king, states- 
man or general? Does the lower animal have any- 
thing to equal this ? 

30. All existences, taken singly, exist by way of 
opposition to each other. This is so as well in what 
we call dead matter as in organic beings. Man 
preserves his existence in this manner as well as 
the lower animal, that does it by personal bodily 
attacks and defences. In law the weaker party in- 
vokes the law's superior strength, and, if resistance 
be made to that, then the constable invokes the 
posse-comitatus; if this be not sufficient, then the 
nation, the military, is called out. With man, his 
opposition has become more or less indirect, through 
his intellect; and the greater development of it in its 
energy enables him to seek a better protection, which 
is necessary, considering that by his civilization he 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 21 

was compelled to give up certain bodily means of 
attack and defence. With the ordinary man, who 
may lack intellect or bodily strength, it may be 
through his money that he contends with the world, 
and the people in general, lacking bodily strength 
or intellect, therefore seek it. 

31. All the enthusiasm that arises in man in a par- 
ticular undertaking is nothing real or substantial ; it 
is nothing but the natural pressure to keep the indi- 
vidual in existence. His vanity is but that principle 
that is the incitement and temptation to him to lag 
along in the world for a limited period, then to find 
that his whole existence has been without an object 
for itself. 

32. The only time we see the true existence of man, 
for him who lacks intellect, is when he is out of 
humor or sick or unfortunate; he now, to his own dis- 
gust, finds that the veil that before covered his eyes 
and prevented his seeing things as they are in reality, 
has been the cause of deception and imposition on 
him. But in spite of this sore experience, the com- 
mon man plunges into the same misfortune, as soon 
as vanity has again blindfolded him. 

33. With all of man's assistance from his fellow men, 
I find that every man in the end must rely on his own 
resources. The different courses of life that are pointed 
out to us may have their salutary effect so far as they 
can be imitated; but if they be not in accordance 
with our own nature, they soon lose their hold on us. 
The different biographies of great men show us the 
career of superior beings, yet what may have been 



22 A TREATISE ON MAN, 

salutary to them, may be disadvantageous to us. As 
there are no two natures alike in different beings, so 
there can be no two men who will lead the same life, 
though probably both lead a wise one. After the time 
has elapsed that the infant claims of the parent, one 
man can be of no more aid and assistance to his fellow 
man than to the extent that civilization has provided 
means, and this being so limited, as it is, that every 
man of ordinary good sense soon sees that it is a 
struggle with him as it is with every other being. 
His preservation is dependent on his animal parts, 
not on his intellectual. In fact, the latter even serve 
the former. 



34. Every man that partakes merely of the animal 
is common, because the animal has no other object 
than propagating. But what partakes of the Mind, 
so far as it frees itself from serving the body, is un- 
common, and, considering the desires of mankind in 
general, very uncommon indeed. 



35. I have often been struck at the shape that man 
possesses in contradistinction to all other animals; he 
moves on two legs, that were it not for the equilibrium 
that he has assumed from use, he would be unable to 
hold himself erect. All other animals have a more 
mechanical shape and operation in their movements. 
Even man himself, when he imitates nature, has a 
tendency to follow nature, not as she is in himself, 
but as he sees her outside of himself; for instance, he 
finds it necessary to put four legs to a table or a 
chair, or when he wants to show the grandeur or 
beauty of nature, he will take any other creature but 
himself as a comparison. Man's position in the animal 



IMAX AS A NATURAL BEING. 23 

kingdom has something unnatural about it, and Scho- 
penhauer's and Darwin's theory must be correct, 
namely, that man is descended from a lower animal, 
and therefore originally depended on his arms and 
hands for progression. Even those animals, such as 
the ape and kangaroo, that rely on their hind legs for 
progression, cannot entirely dispense with their fore 
legs, which they use as hands. 

36. I find with La Eochefoucald that everything is 
done by man because of self-love. Such things as 
charity, benevolence, humanity and all the acts that 
apparently are done for the good and benefit of 
another, are a result of the particular nature of the 
well-doer to satisfy his own desires and reach his own 
ends, which ends may sometimes be very distant, and 
therefore he himself not even at the time be aware of 
them. Even Christ was not without compensation in 
his charity and humanity, namely, the satisfaction and 
contentment that his conscience left him after the act 
had been performed. But as long as a man receives 
no bodily or material benefit for such acts himself, 
and that he has the peace and quiet of having per- 
formed a moral duty, it is something sublime, consid- 
ering that man is an animal. 

But take the general acts that tend to the benefit of 
the rest of mankind, and there is no genuine love of 
humanity as the basis of them; it is nothing but self- 
love, either transitory benefit to be sooner or later 
received through them, or fame. With rich men, we 
see that it is not until they are about to leave the 
world or have left it, and therefore cannot absorb 
their riches, that they make public gifts, found uni- 
versities, hospitals, orphan asylums, etc. So great is 



24 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

human vanity, that, being unable to perform great 
acts or produce great works, they have this pitiful 
way left of forcing their common selves on the public ; 
or else it is done to make their peace with God, as they 
call it, having lived in a continual state of warfare 
with him. 

37. Man is Ego. What does he acomplish, with 
all the boasting of his acts, but matters that relate 
individually to himself? The lower animal follows the 
laws of nature directly, and this is what gives it such a 
natural appearance in all its doings^ Man is too vain 
and conceited to see that he also follows nature, but 
it being in a somewhat indirect way, he assumes the 
originality of the act to himself. His forms of govern- 
ment give him an appearance of separation from the 
brute creation; but this is only another way of self pre- 
servation and defense. The forming together of clubs 
and societies, the entertainments of people of fashion, 
are all means of intercourse where the one borrows 
from the other to make up his own deficiency. To the 
thinker such people are nothing but a troop of wild 
beasts, to break out in all their criminalities and fel- 
onies as soon as the inducement offers itself to obtain 
their own and individual benefits and advantages. 
Enter on a topic of conversation or on a subject that 
relates to the benefit of all mankind, to the progress 
of science and philosophy, on a subject that is pursued 
for the love of itself, and see how quickly a fellow 01 
this stamp will throw dung on it by applying it to 
himself, his family or his affairs, in order to see in 
what manner it affects himself— nothing but bestial 
self-love. 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 25 

38. The reason that we take an interest in the 
welfare of others is because we feel that they and our- 
selves are one and the same, and that therefore 
what befalls them has already or may befall us. 
Some people will therefore sit for whole hours and 
converse with other people on the fortunes or misfor- 
tunes of the latter or of their friends and acquaint- 
ances. This does not rest on the principle of human- 
ity; it rests on the principle of self-love. They are 
all body, no mind, no soul. 

39. A mother will forsake her infant, that for its 
existence is absolutely dependent on her, and a lover 
his mistress, in spite of all his oaths before to her, and 
which, at the time, were probably not feigned. Also, 
in every-day life, one friend, as he calls himself, will 
use his best friend merely to enrich himself, even 
when it will throw the latter into absolute poverty. 
It is all on the principle that such an individual first 
considers his own necessities; if anything be left, the 
victim can have it, but not otherwise. 

40. As man and the rest of the universe are but 
one, when he serves the rest of mankind or other 
existences, he is serving himself, and vice versa. 

41. The question then is put, Is there no genuine 
friendship and love in the world ? ]Sone, as it is imag- 
ined. In all the reasoning thus far on this subject the 
animal only has been under consideration ; and what 
we call friendship or love among animals is nothing 
but a natural instinct for the preservation of the 
species, and therefore common to all brutes as well as 
man, and is always confined at the most to one's near- 



26 A TREATISE ON MAN, 

est allied, never even directly reaching to the welfare 
of every being of such a species. Friendship, such as 
a moral hero, like Christ, for instance, has, belongs to 
civilization and not to the brute creation ; it reaches 
to the welfare of all beings and existences, especially 
their moral welfare. Mere self-sacrifice of an ordinary 
military, or, in some cases, political, hero is not mar- 
tyrdom, because such a victim has continually under 
considertion his own glory, and probably never even 
considers the public welfare, of which he is probably 
not capable.* 

42. Man is conscious of his inability to accomplish 
anything of his own; he feels instinctively that there 
is a superior power that has control over him, and 
that it is therefore useless to resist it. This is evident 
from the daily remarks of individuals, for instance, 
that although they would like to reform as to their 
moral character, yet continually complain they cannot 
resist the evil spirit. Ask the drunkard or the adul- 
terer, why he drinks or why he commits adultery in 
spite of the censure of the world, and his answer will 
be that as great as his inclination may be to reform 
and as many efforts as he continually makes, it is 
useless. Eeform can only follow if the individual be so 
constituted by nature that she wants him to reform; 
that is, that it is his will to reform. In other words, 
he follows his animal nature rather than his moral 
inclination. 

43. To see how much man is animal, take, for in- 
stance, the actions of his body whilst he is asleep, 

* The subject of Friendship is further discussed and treated 
in Book II Chap. V, 23. 



31 AN AS A NATURAL BEING. 27 

when the brain is not in a condition of thinking, and 
it is plain how the body, in its organization, keeps on 
working, entirely arbitrarily. So in idiots and luna- 
tics, they being merely animals, not having intelli- 
gence sufficient to be of any use either to themselves 
or others, which is not even the case with the intelli- 
gent dog, elephant or camel, they in certain traits 
disclosing as much of the man as the most men dis- 
close of the animal. 

44. When we consider the different actions of all 
things in nature, and that they operate without any 
cause being evident to the eye, it is apparent that the 
action takes its rise immediately in the body itself, 
and therefore seems to act in the same manner as the 
will in man does, and that it acts merely because it so 
wills; the will existing, the act necessarily follows. 
Take the different members of the body; they move 
without one's knowing why they move; but it is the 
will of the individual that they should move, and there- 
fore they do move. The action of the will not being 
discernible, is the reason why the cause of the action 
is not discernible. 

45. Man has no will of his own ; all his actions fol- 
low from the universal will, only a part of which is in 
him, only so much as is necessary to make him man. 
His acts do not originate in him, but follow as ne- 
cessarily from the particular individuality that is in 
him as the night follows the day. 

If this were not so, every individual would have to 
be of a different origin, and the fundamental princi- 
ples of nature that exist in all men and animals alike, 
could not exist. It is this very fact, namely, that all 



28 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

men and animals partake of only one and the same 
will, that they all suffer birth and death; the ouly 
difference is that the will, as every individual being 
has it, is differently modified to answer the needs of 
his particular individuality. 

Take an inhabitant of China and an inhabitant of 
America, and they are both men ; they came into the 
world in the same manner and will leave it in the same 
manner; they are, far apart as they may be geogra- 
phically, connected, and both, taken as a part of the 
universal will, kept in a continual motion in conjunc- 
tion with the rest of the universe, by its will. To hear 
that a human being has been eaten alive in a very 
distant part of the world, gives one horror here, be- 
cause one feels that a part of one's self has been 
destroyed in such a barbarous manner. The univer- 
sal will destroying the victim, also acts on the sympa- 
thy of a fellow man of the victim, though probably at 
a later date. 

46. Whatever the intellect does is natural indl 
rectly, but whatever nature does is genuine, and foi 
that reason the former yields when it is in conflict 
with the latter; this is because the human will is only 
a part of the universal will, and is therefore imperfect. 
The human will serves only for the short space of a 
life-rime, but nature in her will is always and forever 
engaged. Nature possesses every creature with a part 
of the universal will, and this keeps transforming one 
creature into another. 

To maintain that the will of man is self-existing, 
and, consequently, free, would also justify the argu- 
ment that it could withstand nature, which would be 
absurd; the truth is, that it is nature's will to the 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 29 

extent that it is a will at all, and nothing more 
original in man than it is in any other animal. The 
will that is in man now, is the same will that was in 
his constituent parts before he was born, and will be 
in him after death. Schopenhauer puts it beautifully 
by saying, that in spite of time and in spite of death, 
we are still all here together. 

47. Wish and desire in animals lead to a continual 
change in their nature ; as soon as one wish has been 
satisfied, there is another present. In youth the wish 
seeks everything that is consistent with its age, 
such as will lead to greater growth — strength ; whilst 
after a man has reached the latter half of his career, 
his wish craves for things that are consistent with 
such old age — decay. All wishes are the cause of the 
vicissitudes of our life, leading us nearer to our grave; 
continually wishing for things never to be reached, we 
are deluded by nature, that finishes off our life, the 
seriousness of which is not felt until it is too late, and 
ihe victim finds himself a dupe. 

Our whole nature is a never ceasing change in time; 
it is our own inclination that makes the change; there- 
fore, if it is natural that the child should desire the 
breast of the mother, which is its life, is it not just as 
natural, and as inevitable to occur, that a certain indi- 
vidual should seek his own death ? It is as pertinent 
for nature to cause a change in matter through death 
as it is to cause it through birth. 

48. Nature in her creation makes her supplies 
superfluous; to every animal she gives much more 
semen or propagating power than there are animals 
produced proportionately. This is the same as the 



30 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

providence of the practically wise man in his daily- 
wants and livelihood. In nature there is ample power 
to make everything yield, to be able to reach her ob- 
ject, and as the species and not the individual is the 
object, she makes the latter yield for the benefit of the 
former; therefore the first duty that a parent probably 
owes is not to himself but to his child, for this leads 
to the preservation of the species ; the parent having 
received the benefit of sexual satisfaction, nature 
demands of him that he provide for that which is the 
result of this satisfaction, how much soever, in certain 
cases, it may jeopardize his own existence. Herein 
lies the seriousness of all sexual intercourse. 

It is a general rule in nature that the parent of all 
animals has a greater love for the offspring than the 
offspring has for the parent; especially is this so 
in regard to the mother during the infant's early 
stages, because the offspring needs the mother's 
nourishment. It all arises from the fact that the off- 
spring is supposed to have a longer prospect than the 
parent ; but where the parentis to have a longer pros- 
pect, undoubtedly nature lets the parent neglect the 
offspring. 

If one love the child, though probably dislike the 
mother, the mother will like one ; and if one love the 
mother, but probably dislike the child, the mother 
will dislike, though probably not hate, one, unless 
the child be so far advanced in age that it can dis- 
pense with the mother's instinctive love, or that the 
child's future is to be less than that of the mother. 

49. A clear mind sees how one existence betrays 
the likeness of the other, interiorly as well as exteri- 



MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 31 

orly, as if the one wanted to say to the other, You are 
I, and I am you; you came from where I came from, 
and you will go where I will go; let us be at peace 
with one another. 



BOOK II. 

MAN AS AN INTELLECTUAL BEING. 



CHAPTER I. 



MAX AS MAN. 

1. To improve one's condition is only changing the 
circumstances so that other evils, which are neces- 
sarily connected with such a change, will follow 
instead; and if it be from a condition in which the 
individual has the necessaries of life, so that he lives 
comfortably as a human being, to a higher condition, 
where what is added is not a necessary of life, it will 
lead to greater evils than those mitigated. It is un- 
doubtedly true that man as man can improve his con- 
dition by changing it at times, and in consequence 
thereof live happier and more contented ; but this is 
only when he is thereby obtaining those necessaries 
that his particular nature requires, considering him as 
an animal in a civilized state. 

In the ordinary changes in life, as they are prac- 
ticed by the people in general, it is nothing but 
seeking to get rid of their present simple position, 
merely because it is simple, and thus prolonging their 
own agony. On this principle Eousseau is right in 
believing that man would be happier in a natural 
state, — that is, if he were not man. Man, as we see him 
in the people in general, is a monster, arising from 
his so-called civilization, which is only a second 
nature that he has assumed, and this being antagonis- 
tic to nature directly, we notice that he is continually 
violating the laws of his civilization to obey the laws 
of nature. Man as man is such a great sufferer that 

35 



36 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

he resorts to suicide, which he does not do as animal 
any more than the lower animal does, excepting in 
certain cases dogs have been known to suicide, either 
actively or passively, for the loss of their master, for 
instance; and this too is a result of a somewhat 
superior intelligence. Man as man can therefore be 
said to be what, in a strict sense of nature, he ought 
not to be. 

2. Man must make efforts to act, and as all efforts 
are merely to keep the body alive, comfort and happi- 
ness are necessary principles of life in the existence of 
every animal. The severest Cynic or Trappist will 
seek shelter from a storm, for he feels that his exist- 
ence requires it. If man could not even obtain that 
satisfaction that he does have, he would refuse to 
live, and this would frustrate the ends of nature 
according to the present natural system. 

3. Of all animals and existences, man is undoubt- 
edly of the greatest benefit and importance to nature, 
for, since nature's object is a continual transforma- 
tion (being born and dying) in her matter, man. 
by virtue of his high intellect, has come into need of 
so many wants and requisites, that his ingenuity is 
continually the cause of one existence taking the 
form of another. It is therefore a plausible question, 
whether this be not the reason, and the only one, that 
man is created as man. 

From his daily employment, following only the 
natural dictates to obtain the requisites of himself 
aHfl his offspring, it is clear that all his doing has 
no other object than to serve the purposes of making 
such changes, so as to make room for other existen- 



MAN AS MAN. 37 

ces. And as he was to probably be the chief means 
in nature, everything is more or less made to submit 
to him. 

4. In nature there is no superiority or inferiority; 
everything assumes its respective place to perform its 
functions, and one thing becomes what another was; 
therefore there can be no such thing as superiority or 
inferiority in nature. In nature one thing serves its 
purposes as well as another; it is of no consequence 
what name man may give to it. Even in our life, with 
our superiority of one man over another, and especi- 
ally over the lower animals, the man of standing is 
dependent on the man of inferior degree and some of 
the lower animals for his riches and his comforts. 
Who can say in what an indirect manner the greatest 
Genius that ever lived served the purposes of the most 
inferior being that ever lived, without knowing it? 

The only distinction in standing to be made among 
animals is in proportion to their intellect. But as 
our position in civilization is only an assumed one, 
it is subject to much abuse. Our original equality in 
nature is the reason why pride is held in the greatest 
contempt; it is found only in people who stand low, 
consequently the disgust and abhorrence it gives rise 
to in noble minds. 

In order that the superior may rule, man has found 
it necessary to make a classification, moral and intel- 
lectual, among mankind. The possessor of a great 
intellect can demand that he be recognized as such in 
matters where it is in order, but in everything that 
relates only to the animal, he has no right whatever 
to claim a distinction between himself and the lowest 
serf. If this were properly carried out, it would be 



38 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

found that the greatest part, I might almost say all, 
of those now standing at the front in learning, poli- 
tics and society would be placed with the lowest, and 
some of the lowest placed higher than those now at 
the front. The end puts all things right, and then 
there is gnashing of teeth. 

It is owing to this very fact, namely, that all men 
are equal, that people of mere wealth avail them- 
selves of this to keep separate from the poorer classes? 
so that it will not be noticed that they are part of the 
same vermin; their lack of intellect and morality is so 
instinctively felt by the people in general that all 
artificial means are resorted to, to set aside the 
appearance of a common nature. But with a man of 
genius it is entirely different; he can be crucified 
with robbers without detriment to his character. 

5. When I look over the fate of great men, I find 
that they always, more or less, suffered for being 
great. It is the f;ate of mankind to be the victims of 
those to whom they are heterogeneous. The ordinary 
vocation of men, it is hardly a matter how insignifi- 
cant or depraved it may be, will apparently, at least, 
meet with the approbation or respect of people, more 
or less, whilst that which is grand and lofty, highly 
wise and moral, has in all ages been the object of per- 
sonal envy and hatred, and left without recognition, 
in the beginning at least. 

Therefore he who wants to be the author of a great 
work must be entirely deaf to the hisses of his con- 
temporaries, and regard their persecution as being 
but evidence of the superiority of his works. 

If the authors of great works, whether practical or 
theoretical, had not all been heroes in defying the 



3IAN AS 3IAN. 39 

world against all its attacks, man never would have 
risen to the stage of a being of intellectuality at all. 

The Genius seeks existence in the mind ; the ordi- 
nary man seeks existence in the body. And as these 
two are continually opposed to one another, it is clear 
that the possessor of the one is an enemy to the pos- 
sessor of the other ; hence the war that is carried on 
against the thinker, because his thought, so the world 
says, is of no practical use, and in this it is correct ; 
and, hence the war that the Genius carries on against 
the practical man, because, as he says, he has only for 
his result an animal existence, and in this he too is 
correct. The practically wise man blends the two, 
and thus for*ns the finest and most valuable subject 
for daily iptercourse. 

6. There is nothing so melancholy as to see a great 
man suddenly struck down; to see that a man possess- 
ing probably the greatest intellect of his time is made 
to submit to a stroke of fate without a moment's warn- 
ing is the most striking evidence of the vanity of hu- 
man existence ; the destruction of a whole nation, as a 
political body, will not leave a more melancholy effect 
than the fact that the greatest of all is made a mere in- 
strument of nature's caprice, as Addison would proba- 
bly say. 

7. Animals in a wild state of nature are destroyed 
by one another, or by man, as a means of food, or in 
self-defence; or by some stroke of nature are pre- 
vented from increasing to such an extent that their 
gregariousness would cause famine and a want of 
means for their own preservation. It is different with 
man, excepting so far as relates to wars, the occasion- 



40 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

al killing of one another in communities, accidents 
by fire, water, contagious diseases, etc. Man's crimi- 
nal code prohibits an unjustified destruction of his 
own species, and in this manner he would keep on 
increasing were it not prevented otherwise. 

Many men decline to marry and propagate, because 
of the burdens that follow ; woman commits infanticide, 
or she prevents the seed in her womb from developing 
itself. These are results of man's civilized state. 

Now, nature must have an object in all these means, 
for preventing increase of all animals. Imagine the 
infinite number of human beings that would be added 
to the existing number were it not that it is prevented 
by the ingenuity of man. I suppose that, however, 
were it otherwise necessary that a child be born of 
every healthy and child-bearing woman every time 
that she is capable, the two sexes would not have 
intercourse to such an extent as they now do. Do- 
mestic animals, like dogs and cats, that have no 
means of preventing propagation, man destroys soon 
after their birth, to prevent their becoming masters 
over him in number. This all lies in the economy of 
nature, arising from the state that man has assumed. 

8. Man possesses more semen than the lower ani- 
mal, resulting from the fact that his blood is warmer 
and of a more productive nature, which is, at the same 
time, the cause of his greater brain; the higher his 
intellect is, the higher and more powerful must the 
bodily functions be to nourish it after it is formed. 
This is also true of the ape, in proportion to his in- 
telligence. 

During the period at which a man possesses the 
greatest quantity of semen, he is also the most active 



MAN AS MAN. 41 

in body and mind ; whilst as old age increases, both 
decrease in strength, because the vital power that 
produced the activity of both is leaving him, and 
therefore after he has become so old that he no longer 
possesses any of this vital power, he becomes deprived 
of semen and intellect, and takes on him a second 
childhood. 

Man possesses more semen, and it continues longer, 
than woman does capacity for propagating, because of 
the greater bodily functions to produce it and to pre- 
serve it; hence the more powerful is his intellect, and, 
therefore, more lasting. This can doubtless be said of 
all animals. I should also infer from this theory that 
woman is. brighter in mind when she has the sexual 
inclination than when she has it not; her blood is 
then at its highest state. When a woman has grown 
old and her vital power has left her, which has also 
taken with it the capacity of propagating, her intel- 
ligence also has decreased in proportion; therefore 
when anything has been foolishly said, it is called 
"old woman's talk." Both man and woman will show 
themselves best in life during the period in which 
they are capable of sexual intercourse. But he who 
possesses much semen but no intelligence, can be said 
to have derived it from inheritance, and that his 
progenitor, or he himself, obtained it from an abuse of 
the sexual organs, which has become a second nature 
with him ; he is no longer man, but brute. 

It is evident that the man of genius possesses strong 
vital bodily powers, in this, that he is always very 
passionate, is impatient, has a brilliant eye, a fast step, 
in fact all the movements of his body, like that of his 
brain, are fast ; generally has a large stomach, whose 



42 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

proper nourishment is the cause of all these ; in short, 
his blood must necessarily be of a superior order. 

Now, as man possesses more semen than the lower 
animal, he must have other means than it of ridding 
himself of the superfluous part, which is done by 
prostitution, and other means that have since been 
assumed. So, considering that this superfluous quan- 
tity is a result of his present intellectual standing, 
prostitution, the greatest disgrace that nature has 
imposed on man, is the heavy penalty that he pays 
for being man, and thus, again, is brought about full 
justice. 

9. Nature allows the human intellect to rise to a 
certain degree of greatness, but then, in a short time, 
ends it again by the death of the individual possessing 
it. Some ages of a particular nation produce several 
great men at one time, in consequence of which the 
nation rises and becomes enlightened, but this rise 
and enlightenment does not last many centuries, and 
the darkness and ignorance that follow are in propor- 
tion to the previous grandeur. This is best seen in 
the Greeks and Koinans, who, from their ancient 
greatness in politics, art, letters and philosophy, re- 
ceded. 

There is a continual revolution from what we call 
good to what we call bad, and vice versa. The good 
or bad is greater at one time than at another, but as 
between the two, the former, speaking morally and 
intellectually, is always small compared to the latter. 
This revolution is continually going on with us, and 
is very noticeable. At times even a single individual 
is greater and better than at others ; even during the 
short space of a single day, his feelings and disposition 



MAN AS MAN. 43 

change so perceptibly that he hardly appears to be 
the same person in the evening that he was in the 
morning. 

Man is what he was, and will be what he is. Mature 
is always the same, whether it be human or other; 
therefore human teachings can not change him from 
what he is We could, figuratively, take one man as 
the original, and thus consider ourselves as the wan- 
dering sons of him. The Jew has best preserved his 
original stamp, and this sameness of look is an evi- 
dence of the sameness in all ages of his character 
and genius. 

10. Man as man is a rare being, yet possible; but 
man as god, I have never yet seen, excepting in a 
figurative sense. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE STATE. 

1. Virtue surpasses all other qualities of man; it 
is virtue that is the man. The State for its existence 
is more indebted to virtue than it is to genius ; the 
State exists from the virtuous conduct of its subjects, 
not from their acts of intelligence. It is true that 
philosophical morality cannot at all be imagined 
without genius, but I am here speaking of propriety 
of conduct, whether it arise either from instinct or 
from a philosophical conviction as to its necessity 
with man as a civilized being. 

To be called dishonest or immoral has a greater 
effect on the conscience than to be called a fool has 
on the intellect, for the individual feels that the 
consequences of an expulsion from the intercourse 
with his fellow men are greater than those of possess- 
ing not even ordinary intelligence. 

A subject who is merely honest might be called the 
negative supporter of the State, and his integrity of 
character will therefore be entitled to no praise; he 
will only be entitled to protection. But a Genius, by 
which I mean a human being possessing intellectual- 
ity, from which follows morality, is a positive founder 
and supporter of the State ; he therefore is entitled 
to praise, if praise be at all in order, for he benefits 
mankind, without being a part of them, and therefore 
in all ages such a being has been considered more 
than man; this is why Jesus is called " Christ/ 9 

44 



THE STATE. 45 

Gaudarua, " Buddha." and the ancients deified their 
heroes. 

2. The conscience is but a power for the State; 
it is the means of approving or condemning our 
actions, thus serving as a tribunal of inward rewards 
and punishments, especially intended for those petty 
errors, faults and criminalities that the laws of man 
cannot reach. For the strictly just man, it is all the 
administration of justice that is required. 

3. As wisdom is the basis of the State, the common 
part of mankind have no share in founding and pre- 
serving it, and, neither, to any of its honors. The 
State was especially founded to counteract the brutal 
and self- unruly character of the common people ; it is 
these very founders, from the great energy of their 
Intellects, that brought about the civilization of the 
rest of mankind. The Moralist being just out of pure 
conviction of his own, needs no laws for himself, and 
all the laws of morality or politics that he lays down 
relate and have reference to the rest of mankind, 
whose passions would otherwise remain unbridled; it 
might, by the way, therefore, be said that those faults 
or criminalities that he does commit, and which, with 
suck a man, are generally against himself, and from 
which, therefore, no one else suffers, his example only 
being bad, ought not to be charged against him, con- 
sidering the imperfection of human flesh, his own 
conscience punishing him sufficiently; his whole la- 
bors and efforts are to the benefit of others, not to 
himself, and thus by far more than counterbalance 
his faults and errors. 

But not so is it with the common politician ; what 
his inwardness does not supply, is apparently made 



46 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

good by his exterior. Take the capital city of any 
nation, and you will find it crowded with legislators, 
office holders and seekers, men who are actually not 
fit to know the common wants of the people ; who are 
entirely ignorant of the principles on which a State 
rests; who have never studied the moral nature of 
man, and yet who assume to themselves the bearing 
and airs that mighty statesmen and philosophers, who 
have founded this very State, and in whose mirror 
such men reflect their apish countenances, would 
blush at the thought of practicing such acts them- 
selves. 

Or, take a man, who by his merits, either of the head 
or of the heart, has performed labors that no one else 
in the nation could have performed, and it is immed- 
iately noticeable that now others who have performed 
none of these labors, also claim the same honors. This 
is especially true of the nobility. A certain subject 
having distinguished himself either in war or the 
cabinet, his king sees fit to confer on him individually 
a mark of distinction, which he himself, out of that 
same greatness of head or heart that made him truly 
great and noble, probably even declines ; but suppos- 
ing that he does accept such royal honors, now comes 
in the whole herd of the family and other relatives, 
near and far, of the lowest degree, and demand to be 
recognized as of the same stamp, and this for gen- 
erations. 

4. The European principle that the throne should 
be inherited, rests on the same basis as that of heredi- 
tary title, both going on the reasoning that what the 
father is that the son will be ; that if the father be a 
hero ( for being which he was entitled to the throne 



THE STATE. 47 

or the title ), the son will also be more or less of a hero. 
But thus to keep one family on the throne, and pre- 
vent all attacks on it, is simply to absolutely close 
the doors against men who may possess those very 
virtues that a king should possess. It is owing to the 
fact that the man that the people do want and need, 
can not get hold of the reins of government in 
a country where the throne is hereditary, that revolu- 
tions, civil wars and anarchies arise. History does 
not say that the ancient Greeks were troubled with 
civil wars and revolutions as the Europeans are. The 
people always being in tbe majority will, in the end, 
control matters ; therefore as soon as a certain royal 
family has become despotic and tyrannical, the people 
dethrone them, and, generally, as a reformation, they 
resort to a Republic, which proves probably more 
unstable than the monarchy, especially if the people 
be not in a state of prosperity. 

It is simply impossible to lay down any particular 
rule of appointing a ruler or king, considering what 
an unreliable, dishonest and given to quarreling race 
the human family is. But by far would I consider it 
a preference that the reigning monarch name his 
successor; if the present incumbent be a good man, he 
will see that a good successor takes his place ; if he 
be a mediocre or even incompetent or bad man, it is 
more probable that his vanity and ambition will 
dictate to him to make at least a reasonable choice ; or 
let it be elective, and only during the life of the pres- 
ent incumbent, for if he be of evil inclinations, they 
cease with his life — in both cases to be subject to im- 
peachment by the people. To make it hereditary is 
to compel a whole nation to accept any blockhead or 
scoundrel that may issue from the royal womb. At 



48 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

all events absolutely exclude the other sex from any 
rights to it ; do not add the sexual disgrace to the 
hereditary one. 

5. When a nation allows a woman or mere child to 
be king, it is evident that they regard the king as a 
mere form, so only in name, relying on it that the 
reins of government will fall into the hands of a min- 
ister. So, to leave the monarchy in the possession of 
a single family, taking indiscriminately fools and asses 
of this family, if theybe eldest born, as well as the wise 
eldest born, to govern a whole nation, was always on 
the principle that sooner or later and more or less the 
administration would be controlled by selected men, 
because even though a king be a fool, his vanity and 
conceit are more or less great enough to desire the 
presence of a great man when he is to be found. 

Besides, in the administration of a government, the 
king does and knows actually only the smallest part 
of it, the practical part being left to subordinate offi- 
cers. It is true, also, that in Europe, at least, they 
relied on divine intervention, namely, that even if the 
king be an ass, he being monarch by the grace of God, 
God would guide his judgment, and his own could 
therefore be never so erroneous.* 

*But if it be true that the kings of the mediaeval ages in 
Europe had the guidance and assistance of God when they 
slaughtered their fellow men, burnt just and innocent men, 
threw philosophers and thinkers into prison for enlightening 
the human race, the sooner that such countries would have 
deprived their monarch of such assistance in his counsels, the 
more enlightenment and true Christianity 'there would have 
been in them. It involves God in immorality, and present 
statesmen should wipe out the disgrace. 



THE STATE. 49 

The clergy, in order to retain their hold in civil 
affairs, doubtless are the authors of all this disgraceful 
delusion, for it would, if he were king by the grace 
of God, require them, as God's missionaries, to be 
the king's counsellors and advisers. And finding 
that there is no better way of controlling a weak 
man than through the influence of a woman, she soon 
became a favorite with them, as she is still to day; 
this necessarily required certain condescensions to be 
made to her, which gradually increased until the evil 
reached the recognition in certain countries of her 
prerogative right to the throne, which was even con- 
tested in these countries, and absolutely denied in 
others either as a self-evident fact or by a Salic law. 

Why a queen, by the way, not a king, should exist 
with bees, I can only answer that inasmuch as proba- 
bly only one female is required for propagating, it 
falls to her, as being alone and free from labor, to 
hold this formal position ; the neuters, as possessing 
more skill, are required in the labors of the hive. 

6. The right to property that has been obtained by 
the sweat of the brow, rests on the principle that the 
owner has paid for it, by giving it his physical or 
mental force that has been spent on it, acting on the 
principle that he who gives, has a right to take. This 
principle is undoubtedly founded on the laws of na- 
ture, namely, that that substance which gives to 
another is entitled to expect to be given from the 
other, everything in the world acting on principles of 
reciprocity, thus enabling everything to exist ; or, as 
the jurist puts it, there must always be a considera- 
tion for that which is given or received ; this principle 
of the law evidently rests on physical laws also. 
4 



50 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

7. I am always more of the opinion that the negro 
is a being so different, intellectually and morally, from 
the white race, that it is against the principles of civ- 
ilization that the two races should stand on the same 
political basis. As an evidence that they are an exotic 
plant, and therefore do not find themselves at home 
here, it is seen that this climate in certain parts of 
the year is too cold for them. Unless there be cogent 
reasons to the contrary, I always believe in following 
the direct dictates of nature, and therefore think 
that Africa is the natural Jiome of the negro; that 
after he had been there for a number of years, he 
could live more as his nature requires him to live. 
It is almost impossible to transport them there all at 
once, but the sooner some such disposition is made of 
them, the better it will be for the political and moral 
condition of America. As it is now, every inch that 
the negro gains from us, either through amalgamation 
or otherwise, we are the losers by. Through sexual 
intercourse of the two races, there is an issue that 
claims a hold on the rights of the white race, and 
demands to be recognized as its complete equivalent. 
Now, it is humane to recognize every being as such 
as our equal, but it certainly is the highest folly when 
regarded as a principle of politics. 

I would suggest that the punishment laid on a 
negro who shall be convicted of a felony, where cap- 
ital punishment is not meted out, be transportation 
to Africa. In this way the American people would 
be obtaining a double advantage, one, that they would 
get rid of a law-breaker, the other that they would 
thereby prevent an innumerable propagation of more. 
This, besides, would cause such a respect for law and 
order in the rest of the race as to prevent many 



THE STATE. 51 

crimes. They are a people that have no morality of 
their own, and therefore find theft and adultery as be- 
ing entirely in order. Keligion, with them, is only a 
means of social intercourse, and of this latter, Scho- 
penhauer says, they cannot find too much ; therefore 
all exterior signs of religion with them, have no relia- 
ble foundation whatever of morality, since their 
churches are visited the more as they are immoral, 
even more so than it is with the white race — the most 
ignorant and immoral being outwardly the most pious. 

8. The ultimate object of the State, as everything 
else in the world, will always remain a mystery. Our 
scope of comprehension allows us to see only direct 
and immediate causes, such as stand in connection 
with our wants and requirements as civilized beings. 
Our standing in the world as nature's present object 
is, would be defeated by gifting us with more depth 
of thought than we do possess. 

9. All speculation on morality, as in metaphysics, 
has the advantage of developing the brain so that 
man always becomes a greater civilized being. To 
bring this object of the State about, nature flatters 
man into the belief that as a consideration for his 
labors, he will in the end find the stone so long looked 
for. History shows that where the thinking powers are 
great in a particular nation, or at a particular period 
of time, the civilization was proportionately great. 
But as sophists and philosophasters will sooner or 
later overturn the grandest structure of human think- 
ing with the people, so will demagogues overturn the 
grandest Eepublic with the aid of the populace. 
Therefore, even at a time when Civilization might be 



52 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

said to be at its highest with the statesmen in power, 
with the populace it is probably at its lowest, and 
brewing for an overthrow. 

10. The principle of sacredness among a people has 
only arisen from the antiquity of their national cus~ 
toms and manners. Thus the word mores, from which 
is derived morality, means in Latin, customs, man- 
ners. From this it would appear that morality was 
that conduct of a people as was taught and practiced 
among them as a nation, a system of conduct that 
was conducive to the interests of the State, existing 
as a community and arising out of the necessity of 
things as they gradually developed themselves, be- 
cause among a savage people there were no mores, 
and therefore the word has no meaning with an 
uncivilized people, in the sense that it has with us. 

Consider yourself alone, and there is no need what- 
ever of morality, but consider yourself a member of a 
whole community, the necessity of whose preservation 
you feel, and you will find that morality itself is the 
State. The individual himself as a moral being is 
nothing, nor can one even imagine such a being ; this 
is the reason that the hero gives up his own interests 
and even life to save the State; in truth he has no 
interests and life of his own, considered morally; his 
life is his as an animal, but his life as a citizen is the 
State's. A man of morality embodies himself in the 
State. 

It is the same with the word virtue, which is 
derived from the Latin word vir } man; virtue is 
therefore manliness, such conduct as a "man" would 
practice. Now, neither is there such a thing as "man" 
outside of the State; what is not citizen, is brute. No 



THE STATE. 53 

one would say that the actions and doings of a set of 
unruly nien, who live only to satisfy their bellies, are 
virtuous; such individuals we call beasts. In this 
sense of the word Plato is correct in saying that a 
State can never become a real State until a philoso- 
pher, the vir, becomes its king. But to find men, as 
Diogenes experienced, is a difficult thing ; and there- 
fore, it might also be said that what we call States 
could very well be considered as a community of ani- 
mals mutually agreeing together for the individual 
benefit of plundering one another, or their neighbors, 
and the object of being together is to make it so much 
more convenient. 

For want of the manliness, we find the necessity 
of constitutions, compacts, treaties, etc., for were 
all men moral and virtuous, as Christ and Socrates 
were, there would be no need of such provisions, 
for the "man" would only practice that which would 
be conducive to the State, and if every individual 
would act virtuously, there would be no need of a 
ruler, law or police. But the very baseness of man's 
nature makes it necessary for him to oblige himself 
by putting a power over himself into the hands of 
another, the constable, so that when he breaks loose 
from virtue, which he will do every time when in his 
passions, or it is to his interests to do so, the one 
to whom he has confided his power can bring him 
back into the path of correct dealing, the correct deal- 
ing of the vir. 

11. The lower animals, I mean especially those of the 
higher grade, betray a certain conduct in their doings 
that is undoubtedly considered by them as more or 
less decorous, from instinct; it is only not so distinctly 



54 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

marked as ours. We are unable to understand their 
dealings and treatment of each other, and therefore 
infer that there is no propriety of manners amongst 
them. It is remarkable what good manners can be 
taught to a dog. The cleanliness of the cat, both in 
keeping her body neat and in burying her excrement, 
which latter is done because it is so offensive, are 
marks of instinctive regularity. Undoubtedly, if we 
could interpret the different conduct of animals, we 
could recognize a certain undeveloped system of eth- 
ics more or less resembling ours. 

It is the custom of the particular animal that in its 
own eye makes it a system. So it is with nations ; 
their particular customs and manners may in their 
respective eyes be a system of ethics, and yet to other 
nations who have lived under a different climate, and 
have been subject to different food, such a system may 
seem abhorrent and preposterous. Take our whole 
system of Ethics, submit it to one who has not been 
brought up under it, and who is probably wiser than 
ourselves, and see what havoc he will make of it ; he 
will also find that the only difference there is between 
ours and that of the lower animal is in the grade. 

Some domestic animals punish their young for dis- 
obedience; probably all animals do in a certain way 
that is unintelligible to us. But the propriety of con- 
duct with the lower animal, as it is with man himself, 
is always in proportion to its intelligence, and as a reg- 
ular State is not necessary for it, it has no regular 
system of morality. 

12. Ethics arises out of the necessity of things for 
man as man. The same power that gave man means 
to exist as an animal, also gave him an intellect that 



THE STATE. 55 

he might exist as a man. His conduct, which is 
different from that of the brute, p/dses solely from the 
fact that he is rational and it >3 not. To make this 
distinction between man and the lower animal, the 
intellect was necessary for the former, which, hence- 
forth, saw the need of a oiyilized state. 

13. It is by virtue o^ the laws of the State that men 
live together, assist and protect one another, and 
thus keep advancing. Guttenberg did as much, ma- 
terially, for authors as authors did for him ; the think- 
ers that preceded him had assisted in the develop- 
ment of the brain that he had inherited from his 
ancestors, ?nd which was the cause of his printing 
invention. Printing was a result, therefore, of the 
genius with which nature had gifted man, and this 
genius was a necessity for his present intellectual 
state. The idea of the necessity of laws, and that we 
must act justly to our fellow men, is as much an inven- 
tion arising out of the nature of things as the art of 
printing was. Lycurgus felt the need of laws to keep 
order and administer justice in the same manner that 
the inventor of printing felt the need of his invention 
to facilitate the publication of books and hand them 
down to posterity. Neither could Plato have written 
philosophy if there had been no laws in Athens to 
protect his life, any more than Bacon could have 
printed his Essays if printing had not been invented. 
In other words, one being is dependent on another 
in civilization, and for this purpose the State has been 
founded. 

14. There are no such things as good and bad in 
nature; every thing in nature is in order. These are 



56 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

only images of the mind, and are always in proportion 
to the intellect possessed. All substances are the 
same, and for that reason what we call bad exists as 
well as that which we call good. 

Opposites are always necessary for the existence of 
beings and matter in general. If there were no such 
thing as good in the human mind ? there could be no 
such thing as bad; the one is a consequence of the 
other; or, rather, the two arise simultaneously as being 
necessary for the existence of that which partakes of 
them. The opposition that good receives from bad, 
as the mind sees it, is the same opposition as that 
that inorganic matter meets with when coming into 
contact with itself. 

15. Our wisdom tells us that we are all one, the 
one as good as the other, and that therefore to cheat 
another is to cheat ourselves. If we cheat and im- 
pose on one another now, we feel that in the end it 
will result to our own disadvantage ; but the recogni- 
tion that all mankind exist in us and we in all man- 
kind, lies still deeper, and it is the conviction of this 
truth that makes us so keenly feel the pangs of re- 
morse at our own dishonest practices. Brutes do 
not know right and wrong, because they have no 
intellect to tell them of this equality among them. 
Tiie idiot knows of no morality, because he sees no 
need of it; he lives along in the world all at peace 
without morality ; he invents nothing because he 
needs nothing. Hamlet says: " There is nothing 
either good or bad but thinking makes it so. n To 
the extent that there is an intellect, to that extent is 
there right or wrong; an act that is dishonest may 
appear to a mediocre mind to be only a fault, but tc 



THE STATE. 57 

a man of superior intellect, it will appear to be a 
crime. The law will not punish a child for a crime 
that it could have no conception of, because to it it 
was no crime ; so it is also with the lower animals. 
But as soon as the child, or, even some lower animals 
have been made to see the iinpropiety of their action, 
the proportional responsibility arises. Lower animals 
and even men that can not be made to comprehend 
the impropriety of their actions, and therefore can not 
correct them, to prevent their being repeated, are 
accordingly disposed of. The law persuines that a 
man who will wilfully and with malice aforethought 
take the life of a fellow man is wholly void of the 
comprehenson of right and wrong, and can therefore 
never be corrected, Experience has taught us that 
in some individuals, by proper training and correc- 
tion, reform can be brought about in their habits ; 
this is because they possess such a nature as is pliant; 
their character is not radically bad, but has only been 
misled. Could not, by the way, this salutary influ- 
ence be tried on offenders whose crimes are capital! 
But the law dare not risk the lives of many in turning- 
such dangerous men loose, merely to make the at- 
tempt; this difficulty is a great hardship on the 
unfortunate offenders who committed their crimes 
only because of the momentary evil influences that 
then controlled them. But, here again, it can be ar- 
gued that if they be set free, they will commit the 
same offence when the same influences occur agaiu. 
If other influences are brought to bear on an offender 
guilty only of an ordinary crime, he may be able to 
assume contrary habits, especially by avoiding evil 
company, in the same manner as a lion can be made 



58 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

entirely gentle ; but after the offender has grown old 
in vice, or the lion in ferocity, it is too late. 

16. It is no matter how well a State may be founded, 
mankind are not so civilized as to be able to do without 
laws or an army, If or is it a matter how democratical 
a people may be, it always demands an army merely 
to commit depredations on another nation. This base- 
ness is as noticeable in a nation as it is in individuals. 
A genuine Democracy or Republic is simply an impos- 
sibility with the human race. A Platonic Eepublic is 
a mere imagination of the brain, to serve as a model of 
what the highest civilization ought to be; to reach the 
highest position possible, perfection must always be 
kept in view, though it cannot be reached ; what is 
merely possible, is deficient, and until wisdom is in the 
ascendency, which will never be, Folly will be the legit- 
imate pretender to the throne ; for if an individual on 
his death-bed can have the satisfaction of saying that 
during his three-score and ten years he has met with 
at least one really wise man, his satisfaction is such 
as I begrudge, for this is something marvellous. 

17. 1 always supposed that rank was intended to 
confer honor on those who deserved it ; but history 
shows to me that as many favorite whores and pan- 
ders of the king have received it as meritorious 
subjects. 

18. The State should deprive all misers and spend- 
thrifts, who have not earned the wealth that they 
have by the sweat of their own brows, of all money 
and possessions not necessary to allow them a reason- 
able living, and use it for the benefit of public neces- 
sity and charity. Such people are a demoralizing 



THE STATE. 59 

example for youth and others, and by the misuse of 
their wealth evince their own incapacity for handling 
it If the State left a miser a reasonable amount, this 
would certainly be enough, in his economy, to answer 
his purpose; and if a reasonable amount be not 
enough for a spendthrift, the sooner he deprived him- 
self of this, the better. 

19. The State will not allow private individuals to 
end their disputes and difficulties by personal combat. 
Why should nations allow it to themselves any more? 
All monarchs or rulers pretending to the least Chris- 
tianity or humanity, could not refuse to enter into a 
treaty amongst themselves whereby it would be 
agreed that all quarrels and disputes be disposed of 
by arbitration. No one but a brute would want to 
end a quarrel by shedding blood when the same could 
be disposed of peaceably. 



CHAPTER III. 



HIS ERUDITION. 

1. It is undoubtedly one of the most obstructed 
ways of arriving at truth by having philosophical 
men, employed by the State, lay down their doctrines 
in accordance with the religion of the State. To take 
men as they come, and induct them as professors of 
philosophy, even though they have passed through 
a half-dozen universities, is to limit philosophy, which 
has no bounds, within the narrow minds of such men. 

Besides, in order to hold their professorships, and 
thereby have their livelihood, they will teach almost 
anything, considering how ignoble the character of 
the ordinary man is after gain and a comfortable 
living. Rather than lose his bread, the common man 
will prostitute himself. And what noble object can 
be obtained on such principles ? 

Philosophy is not a system like jurisprudence or 
medicine, in which the principles are more defined 
and settled. Schopenhauer's whole discussion of the 
university philosophy is therefore correct. It serves 
to give preference to common men in the way of 
honor and lucrativeness, whilst the true man of geni- 
us is compelled to struggle in all his poverty without 
the least aid either of encouragement or profit from 
institutions to whose emoluments he has the best 
claims. 

2. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, and as wisdom 
is alone that which distinguishes man from the brute 

60 



HIS ERUDITION. 61 

creation, the pursuit of wisdom is the grandest and 
noblest of man's vocations. The thinker's whole em- 
ployment is the search after truth ; he seeks it for the 
sake of itself, as every animal seeks and preserves its 
own existence, not that it will in the end yield it any 
benefit or profit, but the compensation lies in the pur- 
suit itself 

But to ascertain truth, philosophical truth I mean, 
requires a head, not as that of the people in general, 
but, as Schopenhauer says, one that is a monstrum per 
excessum, not the capacity of a judge, in ascertaining 
whether a certain act was actually committed or not, 
will answer ; such a head is for daily affairs. There- 
fore, to say that a man is a man of the people, is 
simply to say that he is no truly great man— certainly 
not a man for philosophy. 

3. It is not safe to rely on the criticisms of another 
even if the critic be a good one. What may appear 
insignificant or praiseworthy to the critic may appear 
to the contrary in the reader himself, and inasmuch 
as the tastes and capacity of all men differ, it can not 
be expected that the critic will give what the reader 
in fact needs or is seeking. Whoever is capable of 
enjoying great thoughts, can obtain them from the 
original author himself, and whoever is not capable of 
enjoying and reaching them in the author himself, 
will not be benefited when he receives them from a 
second-hand source. It is only by people who want 
to prate and babble, that the general criticisms of 
great works are read. I do not refer to criticisms and 
discussions on certain philosophical subjects that 
have no positive footing. 

Bead, therefore, the works of the great thinkers 



62 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

themselves, as Schopenhauer also says ; to let others 
do it for you, is like letting another eat a luxurious 
dinner for you and after it is finished inform you 
whether it was good or not. Besides, works that 
have existed for centuries have their favorable criti- 
cism in time itself; corrupt and degenerate as the 
world is, the filth of an age falls into oblivion from 
the lapse of years, and therefore these works are free 
from it. 

An entirely new book should not be read but by a 
man of good judgment. Do not read every misera- 
ble book, pamphlet, periodical or newspaper that 
daily falls into your hands ; they are more dangerous 
to the mind than the most poisonous drugs of the 
apothecary are to the body. Thousands of years have 
passed that had their great men to produce sufficient 
matter for reading for every one ; in them is an inex- 
haustible source for meditation. It is remarkable 
how men will consume the best years of their life in 
the reading of books that have nothing to attract 
but their title and handsome binding. 

4. Bad books are bad company. There is not only 
no good to be derived from them, but the result of 
reading them at all is where the danger lies. They 
are the infection of the mind as a disease is the infec- 
tion of the body, and a disease of the mind has not its 
equal in depravity. A disease of the body will not 
always cause a disease of the mind ; but when the 
mind is depraved, it leads to depravity of the body. 
The reading of bad romances, poetry, fiction in gener- 
al, and the daily newspapers, has not its equal in 
making the greatest part of people depraved and im- 
moral, and yet this is the class of reading that ab- 



HIS ERUDITION. 63 

sorbs the most valuable time that the majority of 
mankind have ; they are not intent on learning, but 
are always seeking something that flatters and best 
compares and agrees with the vulgarity of their 
bodies. 

5. I believe that there is more harm and evil done 
by fiction, romance especially, than there is good. 
Unless a reader be a good critic, he will be misled ; 
there is so much in works of fiction that the writer 
himself does not approve of, but as a reliable writer 
and judge of mankind, he gives them, because so they 
occur in human life. Excepting in the drama and 
poetry, the ancients do not appear to have written 
much fiction. Books of fiction should not be read by 
the people, because they are incapable, and not even 
desirous, of seeking the moral. The good lies so 
hidden in a man's life that the people do not see it; 
it is only the bad that puts itself to the front, and is 
recognized and therefore accepted by all. How many 
men are there who read a romance, novel, drama or a 
poem that will seek out the moral? or after it has 
been discovered, heed it and use it as a guide for 
their conduct? As nothing should be undertaken 
that has not a benefit, so there should be no reading 
where there is nothing learned. 

6. The young reader should never read a book 
unless it has become a standard, from its merits. 
Every book, like every man, contains some good, 
but whether the good that it contains will predom- 
inate over the evil that is in it, or whether it is 
worth the loss of time and risk of beiag misled, is too 
precarious to leave to an injudicious mind, Never 



64 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

form an acquaintance with a book whose character 
and merits are unknown to you, any more than you 
would the acquaintance of a man of whom you have 
never before heard ; it is ten to one that neither of 
them is worthy of your confidence, for as nature 
produces common fellows by the score, so do men 
produce common books by the dozen ; the one is 
as parsimonious as the other in whatever is good 
and great. 

7. It is well before entering on a work, if pos- 
sible, to acquaint one's self with the biography of 
the author, the age in which he wrote, his career of 
life, the condition of the subject at the time that he 
wrote on it, and his general surroundings ; this makes 
his subject intelligible and comprehensible to the 
reader. Never be in too great haste with taking up a 
book. A book is read because the reader himself is 
supposed to be ignorant on that particular topic on 
which it treats, as he wants to become more familiar 
with it. Select therefore a good and reliable guide to 
conduct you through a dark and gloomy forest. 

8. In reading, it is well not to confine one's self too 
great a length of time to one branch of knowledge, 
especially branches that are difficult; but rather to 
devote one's self to them a reasonable length of time 
and then take up some other branch with the intention 
of returning to them. Too great an effort at anything 
produces confusion ; it causes and leaves a contradic- 
tion in the reader's mind. The brain, besides, as the 
body, requires rest and recreation. Some learned 
men, Schopenhauer says, from their continual reading, 
day and night, cause their mind to be so transformed 



HIS ERUDITION. 65 

and blunt that they are no longer capable of original 
thoughts themselves, although they might have orig- 
inally possessed such a faculty to a limited extent. 

9. People in general, as soon as they come into the 
presence and conversation of another, begin to con- 
verse about their own affairs. Knowing that good 
breeding gives them a hearing, there is no end to 
their complaints against others or eulogies of them- 
selves. 

Take what is called in common language the bon 
ton, this most shallow, empty-headed, idle and there- 
fore most ruinous class of people, and it is found 
that its vanity, founded on its own subjectivity, is so 
great, that its whole entertainment and talk with 
themselves in their gorgeous saloons consists of noth- 
ing but a mutual means of transferring to one another 
their petty wants and desires. This is the place 
where such a hearing will be granted, and this is the 
reason why it will be seen that only people of no 
originality of thought whatever, are such great pro- 
moters of its interests. Therefore, for a youth who 
seeks something more than a mere animal existence, 
it can very well be said, Avoid a man who is a favorite 
of society. The wealth that this class generally pos- 
sesses is a great means of bodily convenience and 
comfort, and therefore certainly prevents hunger and 
cold, gives ease of manners, and therefore makes such 
people pleasant and agreeable in their intercourse, 
but nothing intellectual or moral can be obtained by 
associating with them. 

10. It is an important question whether it be polit- 
ically wise to open the highest institutions of Educa- 

5 



66 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

tion to the people in general. It is my opinion that 
only the ordinary Education, such as grammar, read- 
ing, writing and mathematics should be taught in the 
free schools. I believe that it is pernicious to the 
political form of a government to open those institu- 
tions to the public where are also taught some of those 
branches that should belong, strictly, to the universi- 
ties, because they interfere with the practical course 
of the ordinary business man's life ; neither do the 
people in general reach that high standard of Educa- 
tion that will enable them to avail themselves of such 
studies as Greek, Latin and the foreign languages. 
It flatters the common man into the belief that he too 
is probably a statesman or thinker, and thus keeps 
him away from his work-bench or anvil, where he 
might have succeeded ; as Pope says : "A little learn- 
ing is a dangerous thing." There is hardly a more 
dangerous man to the constitution of a state than one 
who has a little learning and an unbounded vanity. 
If the higher Education were confined to the universi- 
ties, this class of men would be more limited. 

If there be found, occasionally, a boy of intellect, 
his way, by such a system, would never be so com- 
pletely obstructed as to prevent his reaching his aim, 
although he be poor, for his superior intellect would 
find a means of reaching that which it requires. 
Neither could a public Education satisfy his demands ; 
it could not be so developed as to answer his high 
purposes, and he would, therefore, after he had finished 
this, have to seek a higher. Besides, it can not be 
demanded that the whole country be taxed to instruct 
only those few that in fact need it. All pub'ic schools 
are intended only to give the child a, practical Educa- 
tion, one that will answer its business requirements, 



HIS ERUDITION. 67 

and this should be thoroughly taught, and under 
compulsion, as it is in Germany, for it is the duty of 
the country, as a wise parent, to instruct its subjects. 

11. The moderns excel antiquity in natural science, 
and have progressed greatly in the investigation of 
the constituent parts of matter. But this is no evi- 
dence that the moderns are a greater people than 
the ancients; they are only more experimental. The 
ancient Greeks, about the time of Pericles, taken 
as a whole, were doubtless more imbued with thought 
than any other people; they were probably, at that 
age, the most philosophical people that ever existed, 
and yet they had no such general system of education 
as we have. But as philosophy is nothing for the 
ordinary mind, so their philosophical spirit did not 
last long with them; it had exhausted itself, and no 
educational system could have prolonged its existence. 

12. To judge of human nature philosophically, it is 
necessary that we be acquainted with the different 
manners and customs of the different nations of the 
world ; it requires a proper survey of all countries in 
their different stages of civilization. The want of this 
universal surveying is what makes the works of most 
writers so one-sided and prejudicial, and, therefore, 
absurd and disgusting. Although it is true that hu- 
man nature is everywhere and at all times human 
nature, yet love of fatherland makes every patriot 
more or less unfit to judge of mankind in general; 
but especially in regard to religion is the prejudice so 
great that the theologian, for instance, might very 
properly be said not to be able to see straight at all. 
Such a man regards every religion that is different 



68 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

from his own as a matter of ridicule and contempt ; 
he has been reared according to the educational sys- 
tem of his country, and from this follows his preju- 
dice. Buddha and Christ brought all mankind into 
their teachings; all the world were their hearers. 
The best manner to dispose of any book that confines 
its teachings to the parish or country in which it was 
written, is to throw it into the fire. Schopenhauer 
very correctly says that patriotism has nothing to do 
with philosophy. Whoever writes on subjects that 
relate to the whole human race, but allows the reli- 
gion of his country, or its customs or manners, to 
influence him, writes only for that nation, and is 
therefore no Genius. 

13. There is one class of men among the learned 
who regard everything that is ancient with the great- 
est veneration and respect, and everything that is 
modern with the greatest contempt. Another class, 
generally the ignorant, regard everything modern 
with the greatest veneration and respect, and every- 
thing that is ancient with the greatest contempt. 
Everybody out of order in this world ! He who can 
search out what is good of his own age and bad of 
past ages, and vice versa, is a thinker ; he does not 
belong to his own age or country exclusively any 
more than Socrates did to Athens, but also to the 
past and the future and all the world ; what has oc- 
curred in all ages and in all countries is his theme. 
This is the third class. 

14. As the character never changes, so, neither, 
can an honest man be made out of a dishonest one; 
but as the character can be led astray before the 



HIS ERUDITION. 69 

mind is sufficiently developed to see the danger that 
may follow a youth's private sinful actions, precau- 
tionary measures should be taken in time. Here the 
wrong that is done may not be against the rest of 
mankind, excepting the formal insult offered their 
dignity ; the damage that the sinner in such a case 
commits is probably all against himself, and, as his 
character is probably radically good, this could have 
i been avoided by proper moral training. As a radi- 
cally bad character will always bring the dishonest 
man back to his dishonest conduct when all exterior 
influence and threats have ceased to have any effect 
on him, so will a sinner, whose character is radically 
good, return to virtue as soon as the exterior cloud 
that kept him in darkness, has passed away. 

Therefore I believe that greater attention should be 
paid by those who have children under their care and 
guardianship , namely, by moral instruction to show, 
in a stronger light, the danger that follows from evil 
influence of others. Saint Augustine must have been 
under such an influence in his earlier years, and 
Eance, the Eeformer of the order of La Trappe, is the 
best example of how a fine soul can fall into those 
very vices that are directly in antagonism to his cler- 
ical vows, simply because he seems to have been 
raised thus, and because of the approval, by their 
silence, of his superiors and associates, who, doubt- 
less, are responsible for the misery and remorse that 
he afterwards suffered from a consciousness of his 
sins, for the rest of his lifetime, a suffering that I be- 
lieve has never been equalled by any other being. 

The education of children should not be so much 
out of books, and a course leading to a training fitting 
tliem for practical and business purposes, but there 



70 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

should be more of the moral in it, more of an oral 
instruction by wholesome lectures at home, in the 
school-room and on the promenades. 

15. When we consider that in all ages the ignorance 
of mankind seems to have demanded some mode 
of superstition, in order to inculcate morals, it would 
appear to entirely eradicate it if man were to establish 
another institution instead, namely, that of legislative 
morality. But I am firmly of the opinion that it would 
be the cause of far less evils than the Christian religion 
as it is practiced, has been. We see in the Buddhistic 
religion, which is not so full of superstition, that there 
is much less contention and strife among its followers; 
it does not undertake to demonstrate the supernatural, 
as the Christian church does, but it is based on the 
moral teachings of Gaudania and his followers, as 
Christ, who was probably a follower of his moral part, 
more or less, intended also his religion to be taught. 

Moralists never stir up the people to sedition and 
riot ; neither does Christ, who seeks peace and har- 
mony among men. But the misfortune is that as it 
speaks of God and the soul in an enigmatic and alle- 
goric sense, it has enabled its sophistical expounders 
to use these as a basis on which to erect their super- 
stition, and as these are two terms that have never 
been demonstrated, they have become an inexhausti- 
ble source of disputes and quarrels; besides, becoming 
intermingled with the common politics of the State, 
which is continually at war either with itself or its 
neighbors, it leads to bloodshed and human destruc- 
tion, and gradually gets its own expounders to take 
part in politics. 

No doubt a moral institution free from all supersti- 



HIS ERUDITION. 71 

tion would also eventually fall into hands that would 
be incapable of teaching its dogmas and lead to mere 
sophistry, unless the government would set a fixed 
mode of teaching and lecturing on the standard mor- 
alists, as it is with the instruction in the public 
schools and universities, — in the same manner as 
Schopenhauer would have philosophy taught in the 
universities. 

16. This system of morality would appear to a per- 
son not a thinker to lead to a change in civilization ; 
not so, for if it were regulated according to its proper 
principles, it would be more genuine civilization than 
that now prevailing. The rules of moral conduct are 
the same as those of religion, the difference being, 
that the former are based on reason, the latter on 
superstition ; consequently these are so unstable that 
they open to many avenues of dissension. 

Every man believes in the absolute necessity of 
morality, and therefore such a system would not be 
attacked as frequently as religion is, in which prob- 
ably hardly a single man has full faith ; morality is 
the same the world over, but religion is different in 
different parts of the globe, and even different in the 
same locality. 

17. The Ancients were not in danger of religious 
wars as we, more or less, continually are, because they 
had one general system of moral conduct based on 
principles that were common to them all ; such relig- 
ion as they did have was, also, general. Shedding of 
blood, as the Christian religion has caused, chiefly 
perpetrated in the mediaeval ages, is nowhere to be 
seen in the history of antiquity. 



72 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

18. The people always and in everything need a 
ruler, and it would therefore be the greatest absurdity 
to let every man construe the propriety of his own 
moral conduct. A correct system of morality incul- 
cated into the minds of the people, from infancy up- 
wards, would lead to greater obedience of the law. 
Temples could be erected and morality taught there- 
in, properly graded according to the ages of the 
attendants, and a compulsory attendance be required, 
the same as it is with the common schools of Ger- 
many, up to a certain age, say thirty years, and 
beyond that be voluntary. There is certainly nothing 
that so greatly interests the Government of a land as 
the morality of its people ; by what kind of reasoning 
could any individual refuse to attend an institution 
where the highest principles of manhood and civiliza- 
tion would be taught, something that man is always 
seeking, but under the present state of things fails to 
obtain. 

The strict moralist, as Epictetus for instance, has no 
religion, as such, and yet such a man is the very per- 
sonification of morality itself. Man needs teachers 
and instructors in morality, not in superstition ; he 
needs the principles of men like Christ and Epictetus 
to lead him through this world of sin and corruption, 
and not church officials to lead him into a state of 
confusion as to God and the soul ( which they do not 
comprehend themselves ), under the pretence of its 
being Christ's morality, and making their own adher- 
ents hate and despise the followers of a different 
creed. Christ, Buddha and John could do more good 
in this wicked world in their plain and simple garb 
by preaching out-doors on a mount than all the so- 
called divines and reverends put together can in 



HIS ERUDITION. 73 

their broad-cloth, standing behind a rosewood pulpit 
in their magnificent structures. Under such a system 
of morality, every man could still, to soothe his own 
conscience, be the follower of any particular religious 
creed that he wanted, only the state should jealously 
keep its eye on all the clergy, to prevent all princi- 
ples that might undermine the state. Superstition is 
in morality what the bayonet is in politics; -but if both 
could be dispensed with, even though not radically, 
kings could somewhat consistently say that they were 
such ex gratia Dei, 

With the people in general, all their conduct, mor- 
al, political and religious, is a mere matter of cus- 
tom, and so, after a sufficient number of years of 
experience, one system can as well be established as 
another, and the old one held in as great contempt as 
the new one at first was, 

19. Morality is the highest aim man can reach ; it 
is only morality that makes him a civilized being; 
without it he is a beast. Most animals possess intelli- 
gence, but no animal but man has anything like a 
systematic morality. There is nothing that is so 
satisfactory to the welfare of an individual as to be 
called moral, not merely honest, because this can be 
said of many men ; but to be moral, arising from a 
correct consciousness of morality, has nothing equal 
to it in man's greatness. A moral man is moral be- 
cause his wisdom so dictates it ; the ordinary man is 
honest because his natural inclinations are such. In- 
telligence alone is not sufficient to disconnect the pos- 
sessor of it from the brute ; a man of intelligence but 
of no morality will never receive the admiration of the 
world ; he surpasses the brute only in the degree of 



74 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

intelligence; but the moral man possesses, in addition 
to his intelligence, another quality, namely, his morali- 
ty, which the brute does not possess. Now, as the 
state's object is to separate man from the brute, why 
should it not encourage everything that leads to this 
end, by continually insisting on its citizens recogniz- 
ing it. It would gradually become more or less 
hereditary. 



CHAPTER IV. 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 

1. Happiness is the sole object of all of man's 
struggles ; every movement of the body is an effort 
to improve on liis x^resent condition. Now, from 
this it follows that man, and every animal, regards 
his happiness ( in which may also lie the desire to see 
others happy) as that compared to which everything 
else is nothing, and therefore it is a matter of indiffer- 
ence to a wise man whether the world know of him 
or not, and as long as the rest of mankind do not suf- 
fer from his acts, whether in fact he be a wise man or 
not. Men disclose the greatest folly when, under the 
pretense of obtaining this happiness, they in fact 
neglect it, by seeking wealth and empty honor, two 
objects than which there are none greater to disturb 
one's peace and quiet of mind. 

2. Have faith in nothing human ; never rely on your 
own undertakings or those of others, for either your 
lack of intelligence or dishonesty, or that of others, will 
probably never allow it to become a fact. To prevent 
disappointments, it is necessary for a man to be able 
to expect the worst. The hundreds of suicides that 
annually occur arise chiefly from the mere non-fufill- 
ment of acts, the result of which could have easily 
been foreseen, and, consequently, the poor victim 
could have been prepared to meet it. 

Hope is nothing on which the wise man will much 
75 



76 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

rely ; it is only the fool that becomes its daily dupe. 
Live to avoid evils yourself, but do uot hope that they 
will avoid themselves ; every man is the preserver or 
destroyer of his owu happiness. 

3. Man's whole miseries of the mind arise from the 
fact that he always forgets that he is more animal 
than man; from having too great a faith in the powers 
of his mind, arises all his vanity, and from this arise 
all his disappointments and failures. The animal of 
the lowest intelligence suffers also, but it suffers only 
as animal ; but man suffers as an intellectual being 
(mental suffering) and he suffers as animal (bodily 
suffering ) , both of which added in one individual, or 
either one, often leads to self-destruction. 

Now, if man would bear in mind that his intelli- 
gence is limited and his body is subject to the labors 
of nature as well as the body of the worm that he 
treads on, he would see that everything that occurs 
occurs of necessity, and therefore was to be expected; 
but instead of being obedient and law-abiding, he 
puts himself into an insurrectionary state against fate, 
and as fate does not heed the vaunting of an ass, he 
is the first to be subdued by it. If, also, man bore con- 
tinually in mind that this reasoning is all correct, he 
would not be disappointed on ascertaining that his 
neighbor and pretended friend had stolen his purse 
or misled his wife or daughter. 

4. As the degree of intellect is greater, so is the de- 
gree of comprehending the blessings and misfortunes 
of life greater. The melancholy that the strictly wise 
man almost universally discloses rests on the principle 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 77 

that inasmuch as there are more evils than blessings 
in the world, he sees them in a stronger light than the 
man of ordinary intelligence. 

As everything has that allotted to it which nature 
supposed was a necessary part of its belongings, so 
here again we find that the man of genius cannot con- 
sistently complain at his lot, nor the man of ordinary 
intelligence at his, nor the fool at his, for each enjoys 
that which is proper for him to enjoy, and anything 
else would increase his misery. It is these different 
stand-points on which the happiness of men rests; 
and it is the mistaking of the one for the other that 
causes a disagreement in the minds of men as to what 
is the most enjoyable position in the world. If the 
intellect be considered, the man of ordinary intelli- 
gence and the fool are justified in envying the man of 
genius, but if practical life be considered, the man of 
genius is warranted in envying the rest of mankind. 

o. Our happiness lies in a state of freedom from 
fear, pain, want and anything that may disturb the 
peace and quiet of one's mind. After the mind has 
thus been liberated, if that be fully possible, there is 
nothing more to seek, and all efforts to improve in 
that condition of life is simply the greatest folly, and 
only tends to destroy even that. But so difficult it is 
to check the ambition of man that we daily find men 
who, by being satisfied with their present condition of 
life, either in fame or worldly possessions, could lead 
a life as near approaching to human bliss as is possi- 
ble, but instead thereof seek to increase their present 
standing, and fail probably not only in this but even 
fall into disgrace, poverty and often absolute want. 



78 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

6. Consider therefore, if you seek happiness, that it 
is not the world that you must possess, and though 
you were able to become sole and absolute monarch 
of the whole universe; the greatest happiness to 
be had in this world, is by becoming absolute mon- 
arch over yourself. Here is a kingdom that, to be 
governed well, requires wise legislation ; therefore we 
find that fools never exercise its authority; it appears 
to be solely confined to so extremely few that when 
compared to the thousands that are daily legislating 
on the rights of others, it makes but a pitiful show for 
the genius of man. Man is a mysterious fabric; his 
own nature requires his life-long study to at least in 
part fathom his own inanity and weakness; but herein 
alone lies the way of reaching in part what he is 
daily seeking. To govern one's self is the only man- 
ner in which to seek a double gain, first, not to be a 
burden to yourself, and secondly, not to be a burden 
to the rest of mankind. 

7. The inscription over the temple of Delphi was 
u Know thyself. * It has always been the aim of 
philosophers to bring man to a contemplation of his 
inward self; that it is not necessary for man to look 
outside of himself for matters of thought, and as all 
that concerns every individual is himself, there is 
nothing that requires his attention so much as himself. 
And considering that man is the only being of civi- 
lization, and therefore partakes something of originali- 
ty, his existence is mystery sufficient to contemplate 
on. Diogenes wisely said that he could not under- 
stand why people would so closely examine and in- 
spect the quality of a trifling article they intended to 
buy, but as for their own character they would pass 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 79 

it over as if it were entitled to no notice. Christ 
teaches the same.* 

The conduct of man is so composed of acts that tend 
more or less to the disadvantage of his fellow men, 
that not even the closest observation of one's own 
acts is great enough to entirely notice it. Every man 
is by nature appointed the legitimate judge of his own 
acts; but he has no authority to judge of the acts of 
another excepting so far as they may affect himself, 
and yet we are daily judging of the acts of others 
more than our own. 

8. In seeking their own happiness, the people in 
general always think that it depends on what the rest 
of mankind think of them, and their relations to it; 
they do not see that the happiness of every individual 
entirely depends upon what he himself thinks of him- 
self. So, for instance, the criminal would be as happy 
as any other individual if it were possible for him to 
believe that he had done nothing wrong in the eyes of 
the rest of mankind. Mankind are vindictive, and 
think if another has done them an injury they will 
not be happy as long as it remains unavenged, think- 
ing that the avenging will free and exculpate them in 
the opinion of others, and thereby feel restored ; they 
do not see that avenging themselves drags them into 
additional quarrels and difficulties, besides showing 
to the rest of the world that they are incapable of 
forgiveness and humanity, and that they are unable 
to control themselves, which is a worse principle of 
their character than it is a boast that they have com- 
pletely subdued their adversary. The greatest enemy 

*Mark viii : 36, 37. 



80 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

that every individual lias, is himself; conquer this 
enemy, and the admiration that follows is greater than 
the admiration of all the conquests of Caesar or Alex- 
ander. Buddha and Christ were therefore greater 
kings than these. 

9. We find among all nations that all great men 
seek seclusion and isolation; that they are inclined to 
be in the way of the rest of the world as little as 
possible. It is also a fact that those men are most 
highly honored who interfere as little as possible in 
the affairs of others, either by their talk or their 
actions; that the less one shows himself, the more 
tolerable he is, and that the more he interferes with 
the world, the more despicable and intolerable he is. 

Now this earnest endeavor on the part of the great- 
est men, through the space of probably nearly a 
whole life-time, to be alone not only for their own 
sake but also for the sake of the rest of mankind, 
striving, in fact, to exist as little as is possible as ani- 
mal, is all the result of a conviction that a man's life 
is not only a burden to himself but to the rest of his 
fellow men. It is on this principle that monachism 
rests, and that the third chapter of the book of Job 
was written. 

10. Men struggle and struggle a whole lifetime, 
and for what? nothing but to earn a subsistence for 
themselves and the little that they give to others. 
In perfect earnestness that they are fulfilling an abso- 
lute duty, some men go so far as actually to jeopard- 
ize their lives merely to accumulate riches which no 
law of mankind or of a higher power has enjoined on 
them. The little needs that a man may require for 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 81 

himself and family can be procured with only one 
third of the labor that man causes himself, and with 
this little he can live a life more according to the laws 
of nature, of man and of God— be a healthier being 
and live a longer and more virtuous life. 

But everything is abused; nothing is left in its 
original and natural state; to perfect what great men 
invent, the fool lays hand to it, and, as a consequence 
to be expected, completely ruins it. So it is with the 
luxuries of life ; having been invented to answer the 
occasional purposes of life as a matter of comfort, 
they are immediately seized upon by the whole of the 
human family, as a daily necessity and a part of act- 
ual existence ; hence the evil it results in. 

11, Wherever philosophic minds founded states, the 
use of money was confined to the purpose for which it 
was invented, namely, as a means of business inter- 
course between man and man; so with dwellings, 
clothes, victuals and all the necessaries of life. Ly- 
curgus, knowing the evil of money, caused his pieces 
to be of such great weight that it was impossible to 
have a great amount about one's person. The supe- 
rior mind sees that all these are but to answer the 
purposes of man only so far as he has abandoned his 
original state of nature, and as the laws of nature 
were not abused by him before he had abandoned this 
state, he does not abuse or misuse the means of his 
present mode of life. It is only the ordinary man 
that lays his happiness in riches, honor, luxuries and 
sexual intercourse; but inasmuch as this is that part 
of mankind which outnumbers the wise part as the 
grains of the sand of the sea do them, it comes that 
with the ordinary man the pursuit after these ruinous 
6 



82 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

possessions lias become a criterion of social standing, 
and any digression from or contempt for them is 
looked upon as the result of a peculiar and eccentric 
brain, although our daily experience and the end of 
every man's existence establishes the fact that they 
are but deceptions and delusions, continually leading 
men into greater misery and perplexity. 

12. The care of obtaining and keeping wealth safe 
is by far greater than the benefits that are to be 
obtained from it ; in many cases it causes men to be- 
come monomaniacs ; in fact some people make them- 
selves perfectly obnoxious in regard to their wealth, 
and are therefore hardly fit to be associated with. 
The best course is the middle one, in this, as in all 
cases. 

But probably the greatest damage that wealth has 
connected with itself is when it falls into hands that 
have not earned it themselves; it is seldom the case 
that its use is not then abused; not having earned it, 
its value is not properly enough estimated. It is 
the question, whether it would not be policy for the 
State to claim all moneys and property over a cer- 
tain amount in cases where the heirs or distributees 
would otherwise come into possession of an immense 
fortune. 

13. The rich man does not see that the more he in- 
creases his riches and thereby enables himself to live 
in ease only, thereby at the same time increases his 
misery ; that as soon as his amount has reached such 
an extent that he has everything in superfluity, he is 
probably unfit to dispose of the rest of his time, and 
that then, lonesomeness, his house-devil, as Schopen- 



HIS MISERY AXD HAPPINESS. 83 

hauer calls it, takes hold of him, and now, in a time 
when his mind is unoccupied with increasing his 
ducats, he has occasion to meditate on his own insig- 
nificence and littleness. 

14. Happiness lies in labor ; man's efforts and strag- 
gles are his eompensatiou ; the action of his body is 
what causes the satisfaction ; so the rich man when 
he meditates over his situation in life finds that the 
most satisfactory part of his life was when he was 
poor and saw that his labors were compensated by 
the health that they gave his body and the small 
amount that he annually hoarded up out of his earn- 
ings. If there be no intellect, no talent there to enjoy 
the beauties of nature in the way of gardening, etc., 
or the beauties of art, old age, as Schopenhauer says, 
when it no longer has necessary employment to obtain 
means of subsistence, becomes a burden. 

15. The greatest danger of wealth is, especially 
with young persons, that it opens the avenue of every 
vice and evil. How many a promising son has seen 
his grave before he had reached thirty, because it was 
his misfortune to be able to pass away his time in 
idleness, dissipation and lewdness ! 

16. Then is to be added, as before said, the burden 
that wealth and fortune lay on one to preserve them 
and protect them against the attacks of the rest of 
mankind, for to do this causes more sleepless nights 
and misery to the millionaire than the uncertainty of 
where his loaf of bread is to come from the next 
morning does to the Franciscan meudicant. Epicte- 
tus had an iron lamp which some rogue stole from the 



84 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

poor old man ; to avoid this in the future, he procured 
himself a worthless earthen one, which caused him 
no trouble. 

17. The man of wealth is not subject to the vices 
and evils of riches in proportion to what he possesses, 
because the administration of his wealth keeps his 
mind so fixed that he has no opportunity of being 
aAvare of them all. But for that very reason he has 
not time for enjoying them in full ; his eye never gets 
to see certain gilded corners of his palace. But the 
reason why common men seek wealth, rests on the 
same principle as anything that is sought because it 
has more or less good in it, namely, they see only the 
good exterior of it, which they mistake for happiness, 
and as they can see no further, namely, than that 
wealth secures a man against the daily wants of life, 
neither can they see far enough to know that after 
these wants are supplied, their riches, for the majority 
of them, serve but as a curse, because although their 
vices and evils can not proportionately be taken in, 
yet they more than counterbalance the benefits that 
they yield. These wants, which mankind so dread 
and fear, are not insuperable monsters, and require 
neither much intelligence nor any capital; they can 
be avoided by moderate toil and integrity, and in such 
a case the blessings of life are nearer approached 
than by superfluity. 

18. The pressure for obtaining wealth and honor 
arises from public opinion, a power that makes more 
slaves of the human family than the greatest tyranny 
of the most absolute despot, for the former enslaves 
both the body and the mind, whilst the latter can en- 
slave nothing more than the body. 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 85 

19. Man in liis present condition requires provi- 
dence, to be able to see, that when his physical and 
mental strength has left him, lie be not compelled to 
rely on the charity of the world, experience having 
taught him that this is very cold; if he would rely on 
it, as many in fact do, the ordinary man would prob- 
ably find that he would have to stand under a still 
greater slavery than what riches could probably im- 
pose on him. In preparing for the wants of life, 
especially those of old age, the practical man shows 
his wisdom, but the wants of man are but limited, 
and therefore in all his undertakings, he should see 
only a dwarf where only a dwarf stands, and a giant 
where actually a giant stands. 

20. As there is no particular position in life in 
which man can be said to be happy, almost any posi- 
tion in which he may find himself can cause him as 
much hax^piness as another. Therefore the wise man 
always accepts that position in which he may at pres- 
ent be. Even in cases where a man from long habit 
has become satisfied with a certain condition of life, 
he can, by habit, also become satisfied with an entirely 
contrary condition. There have cases been known 
where prisoners confined for a great number of years 
have returned to their prisons after having been 
liberated, entirely satisfied with imprisonment, which 
had become their second nature. Even pain, sickness, 
etc., having been endured for a great length of time, 
becomes a matter of more or less indifference to the 
sufferer. 

Man should therefore always be satisfied with his 
present condition ; it is his nature to be as he now is, 
and he should not complain at the decrees of a 



86 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

superior and irresistible power; besides, any other 
condition into which he would be placed might be 
still worse. It should also be borne in mind continu- 
ally that we receive nothing gratuitously in this 
world; our miseries are but compensation demanded 
for past or future happiness ; for a life of happiness 
without its corresponding evils is impossible. We 
find, for instance, that with the Genius who enjoys 
the greatest kind of happiness that man is capable of, 
it is likewise ; for the superiority that he possesses over 
the rest of mankind, there is a very high taxation laid 
on him ; his life is one of being ignored, frequently 
insulted and annoyed in divers ways, that the man of 
a mediocre mind is not at all subject to ; eventually 
probably to be crucified. Thus everything in life has 
its advantages connected with its evils, and every- 
thing its evils connected with its advantages. Every 
man should therefore say, I am where I belong, other- 
wise nature would not have placed me here ; I will 
endeavor to make the best of it. 

21. The happiness of man lies, as Schopenhauer 
wisely says, not in having pleasure, but in keeping 
away evil. Pleasure, in the sense that the world un- 
derstands the word, is of itself an evil, and from this 
follow other evils. 

Contentment lies not in having what the world 
offers you, but in having a contempt for the world, by 
which I do not mean the world as nature creates it, 
but as man undertakes to remodel it. Every individ- 
ual should therefore seek his happiness in himself, 
for the world will never be benevolent enough to 
make him happy ; nay, it would deprive him of his 
own existence if it could. For instance, the fashiona- 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 87 

ble part of the world, who seek happiness not in 
themselves but in exterior objects, wear a look of dis- 
appointment on their faces. People of pleasure and 
fashion have always been considered the greatest 
fools of all mankind, because they are always endeav- 
oring to un-nature themselves, and running after 
shadows, in spite of the daily and repeated lessons in 
their own life telling them that shadows are not reali- 
ties. The lower animal, which follows the dictates of 
nature directly, leads a more contented and desirable 
life; with us our own intellect is an obstruction to our 
own happiness. 

22 With the most of mankind, their intelligence 
serves more to lead them astray than it does to keep 
them in the right path. With his ingenuity man has 
invented so many vices and evils that his course of 
life has become almost entirely unnatural ; his concu- 
piscence he carries to a degree of misuse that is 
equalled by no other being ; his appetites have ruined 
his stomach ; and all his other modes of living are 
artificial and irrational, so that, as Schopenhauer 
says, he stands as a disgrace in the midst of the rest 
of nature's creations. With the most men of intelli- 
gence, it would have been better had they had their 
instincts alone left as a guide; and it might be said, 
we could apply this doctrine to at least seven-tenths 
of mankind. 

Although his condition in life as regards happiness 
may in a particular case be even an enviable one, the 
common man believes that there is something about 
his neighbor that he can not dispense with to cause 
himself to be a completely happy man. Many men 
who have lived happy in their little huts, were tempt- 



88 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

ed to a palace because another man lives in one, which 
afterwards turned out to be their prison ; and many a 
man, to be able to wear velvet because his friend 
wears it, robs the public treasury, to end his days in 
jail. This causes much grief and sorrow in the world. 
It is correctly said, that one evil leads to another ; the 
first temptation may not injure a man; no, it would 
be good if it did, for here the evil would cease ; but it 
is the following and connecting evils that keep leading 
him on until he is so surrounded by the monsters that 
nothing but death or disgrace awaits him. 

23. Is there anything in the world worth taking in 
earnest ! Your happiness is fleeting, your misery is 
fleeting; why then dwell on them until they cause 
you to be gray and wrinkled? Pass over the daily 
quarrels with your fellow men as nothing; con- 
sider how slight the cause was that gave rise to them, 
and you will find that the quarrel is itself nothing. 
Take notice of another's faults to that extent that the 
same quarrel will not again arise, but do not make an 
elephant of what was only a flea. Consider, besides, 
that if your enemy is in the wrong, he is more entitled 
to your sympathy or contempt than to your hatred ; 
and this may have the additional benefit of even 
reforming him ; and always bear in mind what the 
greatest peacemaker on earth taught, namely, that 
revenge belongs to a higher, and not to you. 

24. Instead of celebrating one's birth-day, it would 
be far more appropriate to consider it a day of grief. 
Neither man nor any other animal was made an object 
of happiness. Considering life as one of happiness, is 
taking an entirely wrong view of it. Optimism is 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 89 

something for bigoted divines, adhering to the Jews' 
Old Testament, but nothing for Christ or the philoso- 
pher, both of whom view life as it actually is, not as it 
is wanted. A Christian, especially, cannot help but 
see that life at the best is miserable ; and if a man do 
not see this, he is no Christian. The whole life of 
Christ was one of suffering, and in the manner in 
which he regards it, lies his very greatness. If man 
were what the optimist would have him be, there 
would be no need of suicide, churches, and a criminal 
code to check him in his bestiality and diabolical con- 
duct. Besides, those books of the Old Testament 
which are genuine works of thought, do not regard 
life as one of happiness, but of misery, such as the 
book of Job, and one of vanity, such as the book of 
Ecclesiastes. 

25. It is not so much our own miseries and sorrows 
that cause life to be a burden to us, but it is the mise- 
ries and sorrows of others added to ours that increases 
it. So it is also with happiness. It is frequently the 
case that our participation in the miseries or happi 
ness of others is far greater than they could cause us 
misery or happiness were they our own ; and this is 
angelic. This is so not only in regard to our fellow 
men, but to a certain extent, also, to our fellow creat- 
ures. But as the misery and happiness that we have 
in the welfare of others arises from the imagination, it 
is carefully to be guarded, otherwise the participant 
may fall a victim to it. 

Every being is a sufferer. ]Nor is man the only being 
that possesses sympathy; it is used by nature as a 
means in the protection of her beings, and therefore 
she has gifted other animals with it to a certain 



90 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

extent. Were one lost in the snow in winter, in cer- 
tain parts of the Alps, one could better rely on the 
faithful assistance of one of the dogs of St. Bernard 
for the preservation of his life, and though he be a 
stranger to the dog and a stranger to the country, than 
he could on the assistance, in his own country, of his 
fellow men and so-called friends, did it require the 
same efforts, although they had probably previously 
enjoyed his bounty and charity even to the extent of 
actually impoverishing him. 

26. Ordinary people presume because a man occa- 
sionally has moments in which he feels himself at ease 
and rest, or better than usually, that he is leading a 
happy life; this is impossible, since misfortune is as 
necessary for our existence as fortune itself, and were 
it not for the former we would not know of the latter ; 
a continual contending is the cause of existence. A 
wise man will seldom complain at his unhappiness ; he 
feels that it is part of himself. 

27. The daily remarks and actions of men continual- 
ly prove man's misery and dissatisfaction with the 
world. It is evident from the fact alone that he is 
continually endeavoring to improve his condition; 
every movement of his muscles, every action of his 
brain, shows that he is dissatisfied with his present 
situation and is seeking another. So it is with chil- 
dren, although childhood is considered the happiest 
part of our life. 

No man who has thought over his lot, has yet felt 
that his life was a desirable one, and that he would 
like to go it over again. Dr. Johnson once remarked 
that not one week of his past life would he like to 
repeat. 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 91 

28. A man is never completely happy. If pleasure 
occasionally for an hour or more cause enjoyment, 
the mind always feels whilst in the midst of it, that 
what is left in the mind of the past or what is future 
will make it all vanish as soon as the present is over. 
The best that a man can wish for is a state of indiffer- 
ence, a state in which he feels that even if there be 
moments of satisfaction in the way of pleasure, yet 
surely they are overbalanced by the hours of dissatis- 
faction. To be content with the world and individual 
affairs as they occur, is the greatest blessing that 
nature can bestow on a man; and whoever possesses 
this to the greatest degree is the happiest man. 

29. Were every man to write down every hour of 
misery and every hour of happiness that he lives, 
during his whole course of life, it could be seen, strik- 
ingly, on which side the predominance would lie; even 
if the hours of indifference were added to the hours of 
satisfaction, it would not change the balance. In 
truth, if we could look at the subject rightly, we would 
find that our very existence, aside from any evils and 
misfortunes that may be caused us by other beings 
or exterior objects, is a burden in itself. 

Man, from a long course of the endurance of all the 
evils of his existence, becomes more or less hardened 
to them, and therefore looks upon them with some- 
what of an eye of indifference, and it is from this that 
life to the superficial observer appears to be happy. 
Man being an animal — propagation — his wish is that 
he may live forever; but when we consider him as an 
intellectual being, the shorter his life is, the more it is 
according to his wishes, because as such he sees its 
whole misery and vanity. But the laws of propaga- 



92 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

tion and self-preservation being greater, for they are 
original, than the laws of man's wisdom, which are 
only secondary, it is true that even the greatest pes- 
simist makes his struggle for existence; and this 
power is so great that we even feel thankful when 
our life has been saved from some calamity, although 
it may have been one of continual suffering prev 
iously. 

30. Nature has gifted man with sufficient power, 
mentally and bodily, to contend against the misfor- 
tunes of his existence for the time that he is to remain 
on earth. All of his troubles and misfortunes should 
be as much endured as the tree does the wintry 
blasts, which almost deprive it of its life, but in the 
spring-time to prosper so much the better. As the 
body requires sickness to renovate its system, so does 
the mind require misfortunes to restore it to its orig- 
inal energy. 

31. Take man's misfortunes in the world, let them 
take their course, and it will be found in every one 
of them eventually that they are not ultimately to 
his disadvantage, but, on the contrary, help to make 
up the little good that is in him. It is even said in 
common life that everything is for the best. Misfor- 
tunes and mishaps are to the mind of man what medi- 
cines are to the body; although they are very bitter 
doses, yet the wise man knows their salutary effect, 
and takes them willingly. As misfortunes are reme- 
dies invented by nature adapted for the particular 
individual, I have more faith in their results than I 
have in the drugs and medicines of man's invention, 
which are applied to all men alike; and yet there is a 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS 93 

class of men, like a class of invalids, that no remedy- 
in Christendom will heal. They must be disposed of 
in a summary manner. 

To the man of a sound and reliable mind and char- 
acter, misfortunes serve as a warning, as a lesson for 
the future. One continual course of success in the 
world would make the most men so conceited and 
inflated that they would almost wholly ignore their 
fellow men; they therefore need to be occasionally im- 
posed upon by the dishonest ingenuity of the latter. 
Here again is the justice with which nature proceeds. 

32. Misfortunes eventually, it might be said, have 
more benefit in them than fortune. Misfortunes make 
a man submissive, teach him obedience, and this all 
in the end serves as a blessing. But fortune, if it be 
frequent, causes arrogance, pride and contempt, all 
of which leads to destruction, ruin and contempt, 
and hatred in return. Misfortunes must humble the 
proud, and fortune encourage the humble; so that 
there is a continual balancing of nature's favors. 

Pascal says that every benefit that we derive is 
taking us that much farther away from the truth. 
We find that the greatest men of wisdom were gener- 
ally men of misfortunes or suffering; they were great 
because their misfortunes and miseries had instructed 
them as to the actual state of things in the world. 
Schopenhauer says that a man should rather be en- 
vied for his misfortunes than his fortune. 

33 Man in all his miseries should never forget that 
he serves a greater power, whose will and not his own it 
i« that it should be so. That man who obeys the laws 
of morality and of his land is a happy subject; but 



94 A TREATISE ON MAN, 

that man that submits to the misfortunes that fate 
has visited upon him is not only a happy subject, but 
is also a conqueror, namely, over himself, and this is 
the greatest conquest that can be had. It is in vain 
that man strives to rid himself of his misfortunes, and 
the greater the effort, the greater are the ill conse- 
quences. 

It is from the fatal error to look upon miseries and 
misfortunes that they should not be, that suicides 
arise. To submit when a superior power surrounds 
us is manly, but to run to the rum bottle or into the 
arms of one's mistress or wife when misfortunes over- 
take us, is cowardly and base, for it evinces that such 
a being wants to enjoy life without paying for it; 
whereas every wise man considers that nothing, not 
even the subsistence that he may receive from nature 
directly, can be obtained without a consideration, for 
consideration is as much a necessary part of the con- 
tract existing between nature and man directly, as it 
is in law in contracts between two or more individuals. 

34. It has been said that if the teachings of the 
philosophers, such as denial of the world, were follow- 
ed as they are enjoined, the civilization that man now 
enjoys, would in time cease and man return to his 
original brute state. Now, if it were at all possible that 
these teachings would become a universal practice 
with the human family, it might be possible that this 
would be the result; but the teachers of this doctrine 
are fully aware that this, with the mass of mankind, 
is simply impossible, and therefore do not anticipate 
the least danger; but teach it in the strong sense that 
they do in order to make an impression. They believe 
that the theoretical part is to be left to themselves 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 95 

and the practical part to the ordinary part of man- 
kind, and thus by keeping the two more or less blend- 
ed/ as near as it is possible, by introducing theory 
into practice, mankind would be happier, and this is 
undoubtedly true. 

Besides, there is a class of thinkers who do believe 
that man would make an excellent bargain by giving 
up his present civilization in return for his original 
state, and, regarding man from the stand-point of an 
animal, this view is also correct. In the sense that 
these thinkers respectively regard the matter, all are 
correct. Even the common man, by looking at every- 
thing with an eye to money profit, pursues a proper 
course for his animal nature, but inasmuch as his 
course is not based on the dictates of reason but on 
the desires of the beast, without regarding the wel- 
fare of his fellow men in his pursuit after worldly 
possessions, he stands below the common beast, for 
the latter seeks only what is necessary for its self- 
protection or self-defence. Such a man would cer- 
tainly not be degraded by returning to his original 
state. 

But, above all this, it does not necessarily follow 
that man would so return to his original state intel- 
lectually, for we find that in the primeval ages, when 
arts and sciences were almost as nothing, more or less 
great philosophers, poets and law-givers existed, who 
stand to this day even amongst us as unrivaled. So cer- 
tain savage nations have their moral laws as regards 
the intercourse of different tribes or of the family, and 
which probably are excellent laws in themselves. The 
ancient Germans, in all their crudeness,and the orig- 
inal North American Indian, in all his wildness, had 
private and public laws, and certain of their moral 



96 



A TREATISE ON MAN. 



conduct among themselves was so exemplary, that it 
would be my earnest wish to have nine-tenths of our 
people of standing schooled according to their teach- 
ings. And it is of the latter that I believe Humboldt 
said that they were the happiest people in existence 
— they are free and still not entirely brute. Of the 
ancient Germans it is claimed that Marcus Aurelius 
spent part of his boyhood among them to be impress- 
ed with their integrity and honesty. 



35. To be truly happy requires that one be entirely 
free. If freedom can not be had, it is better to be a 
lower animal, because, although its condition may be 
that of slavery, yet its intelligence being so limited, 
it can not comprehend its own misery, nor does it 
increase its misery by letting the imagination dwell 
upon it. 

A true genius is never satisfied as long as he is 
compelled to live among his fellow men who dictate 
laws to him ; he is law itself and will not admit that 
it can come from another source. Take, for instance, 
a law which requires him to adhere to a particular re- 
ligious creed in which he has not the least failh, and 
for him it is the highest tyranny, the highest bar- 
barity and brutality to enforce a law against him 
enacted by men who could not loosen the latchet of 
his shoes. The laws relating to stealing, murdering, 
etc., have no reference to him j he can therefore toler- 
ate them. 

Laws are passed to prevent the barbarity and bru- 
tality of man from transgressing the boundaries of 
civilization, and to make a Genius also subject to 
these laws is classifying him with the vulgar of man- 
kind. Though it can be said that as long as a man does 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 97 

not violate a law, he does not come under it, and that 
it has no reference to him; the true genius, acting on 
principles of morality, never violates a law in its 
spirit, Supposing that he was turned free to act as he 
will, the errors and criminalities that he would com- 
mit would be nothing compared to the violations of 
laws by the ordinary man with the law continually 
hanging over him. But a Genius is an occurrence so 
extremely rare, that the general laws can take no 
notice of him and make him an exception. Besides, 
who would be capable of drawing the line of distinc- 
tion ? 

But with the ordinary man, and, in one sense, it can 
so be said of the man of genius, that, as long as sub- 
jection is not despotism and tyranny, it is a greater 
blessing than general and unlimited freedom ; in this 
sense freedom with the common people would mean 
anarchy, complete annihilation of the state. The sub- 
jectivity of the boy under a stern but wise father is 
that boy's happiness ; and so of a people under a wise 
king. Crushing the hopes of a subject from enjoying 
that which his superiors say would be a detriment to 
him, makes him contented with his present condition, 
which is happiness. 

36. Man is to himself the greatest enemy, individu- 
ally and to others; his greatest burdens and cares he 
himself lays on his own shoulders, and the greatest mis^ 
fortunes that we receive come from our fellow-men. 
There are but very few men who have foresight and 
weight enough to provide for their happiness; the 
world imagines that every man who succeeds in ob- 
taining riches and the title of nobility, has found it; 
such a man has pursued the very course where happi- 
7 



98 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

ness does not lie in the sense that the wise man regards 
it. Worldly possessions and social standing are one 
thing, and contentment, which is the wise man's happi- 
ness, is another. Eiches, by the way, when in the 
hands of a practically wise man, will cause greater 
happiness than nobility, because they prevent want, 
and if such a man will properly use them by living 
according to the dictates of nature and of morality, 
he can be said to be practically happy ; his philan- 
thropy can thus silence many scruples of the con- 
science. 

The greatest disturbers of one's inward contentment, 
are honor, nobility, society, wealth and politics; these 
all having to deal not with the interior part of the man 
so far as his own relations are concerned, being unnat- 
ural and only assumed by man in his civilized state, 
cause him many a palpitation of the heart, arising out 
of envy, fear and hatred In such matters the heart 
leaps both in its ecstacy and in its discouragement be- 
yond its boundaries; in neither event has it control of 
itself, consequently the evil of both. 'And if this be 
true, it is also true that he is to himself the greatest 
enemy, for these are always his greatest aspirations, 
which no one imposes upon him but himself. 

The wilful obstruction, the malicious interference, 
fiendish attacks and malevolence practiced by the 
human family on one another, envying one another 
because of a moral character, of intellectuality, of a 
generous heart or of personal beauty, that nature has 
conferred upon any one of them, or because of the 
possession of fruits of years of sweat and labor, 
always reminds me of what Burns says, namely, that 

" Man's inhumanity to man 
Makes countlesss thousands mourn." 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 99 

A man may, even with the best efforts, thereby 
intending to benefit the condition of mankind, after 
years of toil and labor, invent a particular mode, man- 
ner or means of whatever kind or form, and thereby 
be a blessing to the world, and yet probably not even 
to himself, and nine-tenths of mankind immediately 
wish him and it to the Devil, and five-tenths are 
armed and ready to send them both to him on a 
moment's notice. And this human cursedness, al- 
though it does not manifest itself, exists (I am asham- 
ed to be compelled to confess it) to a more or less 
extent in some of the best hearts. 

When this is the case, namely, that one's best in- 
tentions are thus received and accepted, the only 
lot that is left to a man of a true head and faith- 
ful heart is to separate and seclude himself from a 
class of beings whom civilization and morals intended 
as his brothers, his fellow- workers and well-wishers. 
When he is no longer, when he can no longer remind 
them of their inferiority as compared to himself, then, 
because they find that other hypocrites do it, under a 
pretence of love to his labors and teachings, they lay 
wreaths on his grave and worship his image. It would 
make a genius blush if he could rise from his grave 
and see who some of his worshippers are. 

37. The greatest happiness that man can enjoy, or 
the greatest misery that he can suffer, is in the 
imagination, for this goes much farther than reality it 
self. He, therefore who has a powerful fancy and his 
object be to seek the great and the good, has one of 
the greatest blessing tnat probably nature can bestow 
on man. The enjoyment arising from the imagination, 
where the object is a grand one, is entirely free from 



100 A TREATISE ON 3IAN. 

the unpleasantnesses that necessarily accompany the 
reality. 

But a powerful imagination must be carefully 
guarded, since, if it be allowed full play, it will make 
realities of its figures, and, consequently, expect them 
in practical life, or it will magnify the miseries far 
beyond what they actually are in life, and thus make 
the victim a hypochondriac. The imaginary Eepublic 
is by far a greater source of happiness to the philoso- 
pher when he meditates on it, than it would be if he in 
reality enjoyed it, but he must always still regard it 
as but a figure of his mind, otherwise he will expect 
its principles to be in force where, in fact, probably a 
despotic form of government reigns. 

To return, take riches, wine and women, that the 
vulgar of mankind seek, and they will not yield a 
pleasure to the actual possessor of them that the 
imagination does to the poet when dwelling upon 
them, for in reality they are poisons, as Lichtenberg 
calls the two last, and therefore always leave behind 
them a bad and pernicious result; their reality is 
for the belly, consequently painful. A reality never 
yields what it promised, even whilst in the enjoy- 
ment of it. 

38. Bacon so beautifully says, " Whoever is delight- 
ed with solitude is either a wild beast or a god." So 
here again there is but one step from the sublime to 
the ridiculous ; as it is with everything that is great 
and noble, solitude is also a subject of abuse and 
misuse. Man is a civilized being, and requires to live 
according to certain principles. But since civiliza- 
tion, which is man's mode of living as a being of intel- 
lectuality, also finds that nine-tenths of its subjects 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 101 

more abase and misuse it than enjoy it as was intend- 
ed, the philosopher prefers to reject the abuse and 
misuse of it, and take only so much of it as is 
salutary. It is more correct to say that, as the ordi- 
nary part of mankind live but a few stages above the 
lower animals, they have but very little civilization, 
and therefore when the philosopher leaves them he is 
only seeking it. The noble man loves peace and 
quiet, order and law, as Goethe says, and seeks them 
in solitude ; the people love anarchy, revolutions, 
murder, adultery, whoring, rape, theft, wine, &c. As 
it was philosophers that sought out the civilized state 
of man, so are they the only ones that are capable of 
enjoying it, namely, in solitude. 

39. If I had let my peace and happiness be annoyed 
by the continual fault-finding of my character by my 
so-called friends, I should have been in a deplorable 
state of happiness, 

40. The worldly success of men in general is to 
compensate them for their lack of higher qualities. 
Or is it that nature overloads the rascals, for instance, 
in order that they may serve as an example against 
wealth and worldly possessions ! for nothing works a 
greater contempt for a thing than to see it in the 
hands of him who is not worthy of it. To see a hog 
adorned with diamonds, certainly deprives a man of 
noble feeling of the desire for them. 

41. It must be that our life itself is an evil, since 
we find that it receives more punishmeDt (suffering) 
than it does rewards ( happiness ). 



102 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

42. The lord in his castle seeks his happiness at his 
feast; but whilst he is seeking it there, it is probably 
on a visit to the hut of one of his vassals. 

43. Instead of showing a man of wealth respect 
upon first meeting him, we should rather mistrust his 
character, at least suspend our respect for the pres- 
ent, since the mere fact of his wealth is evidence that 
he belongs to the multitude; besides, it is ten to one 
that he obtained it upon more or less unjust prin- 
ciples. 

44. Nothing justifies a man to honor or respect but 
toil and labor, either of the mind or of the body. Just 
as a continual combat with vice and evil only justifies 
a man to be called virtuous or moral, so only toil and 
labor justify a man to possessions and riches. 

All persons, therefore, who lay a claim to morality, 
or a claim to riches on any other principles than the 
above, are simply imj)ostors in the first case and 
thieves in the second. Not even the Genius, who is 
maintained by others, obtains his livelihood gratui- 
tously, for, as Schopenhauer also says, the good that 
he does mankind is the consideration for it. 

45. As long as you live, be satisfied, whatever your 
misfortunes maybe, because it is your desire to live; 
when death has arrived, be also satisfied, for that 
leads to rest, and this is what you have always been 
seeking. 

46. You complain at the roughness with which fate 
handles you ? Look at your neighbor— in want, sick- 
ness, suffering and disgrace. 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 103 

47. His misfortunes were often his happiness— so 
indifferent had he gotten as to the world. 

48. When health and fortune are at hand, I feel 
that life is beautiful, and then desire to exist; but 
when sickness or other misfortunes come, I feel that 
death is better than life. Both impressions, if taken 
moderately, at their respective times, are correct, and 
that we should feel or act according to them is 
natural and wise. 

49. We are created to be nature's slaves; we are 
here to serve her purposes (in her propagation), not 
ours, and God knows, she gets out of us all that we 
are worth. 

50. Poverty is natural for man, because he is more 
animal than man. He has not and never will reach 
that state of intellectuality that he can invent his own 
happiness by letting wealth or any other means super- 
induce it; wealth is only a means for man's subsist- 
ence. Happiness itself is only a means for subsisting, 
and when regarded otherwise it becomes misery, as 
wealth becomes an evil when regarded otherwise than 
as a mere means of maintenance. 

51. Every man should carfully guard every one of 
his actions and doings, since every one will be of 
greater importance, either as to his misery or happi- 
ness, in the future than he now imagines. 

52. Our evils are like a great army to contend with ; 
there is no other remedy than to keep fighting until 
they are all slain (in death); not until then comes the 
laurel. 



104 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

53. By not claiming many of the world's fortunes ? 
one does not need to take many of the world's misfor- 
tunes, because where the former is not, there the latter 
is also not. 

54. If man is to lead a civilized life, the moderate 
luxuries are a necessity j how, otherwise, could a good 
part of mankind earn a living ¥ 

55. Sometime this (1886) or last year, I read in one 
of the newspapers, that an old Frenchman by the 
name of Grevy had died in some part of the State of 
New York, where, without near neighbors, he had 
lived for many years as a hermit. In an old book that 
they found after some men who were on a hunt had, 
by accident, discovered the old man dead in his hut, 
was written u Thank God, Jules Grevy is President of 
the French Eepublic." Now, who was the better or 
the happier man, the President of the French Eepub- 
lic or the hermit ? As for myself, I am compelled to 
confess that at the time I read it, I had actually for- 
gotten, for the time, the name of the President of the 
French Eepublic, but such an impression did the life 
of this hermit make on my mind, that I shall never 
forget his name. 

56. A man who suffers is in a better state leading 
to genuine happiness than a man of fortune and ease. 

57. A man should not let his reputation be so that 
he will first be acquitted and finally condemned, but 
he should let it be as Christ's was, and as that of all 
truly great men is, namely, first condemned and then 
acquitted, for this brings with it true and lasting 
glory. 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 105 

58. Let every man live honestly, so that he can die 
in peace. 

59. All that the world demands of a man is that he 
do his duty to himself, for this is doing his duty to 
the world. 

60. When ill or thinking of life beyond fifty years, 
it seemed to him that the evening of life was coming 
on; it was welcome. To a soul that would like to ele- 
vate itself above this world, the only reliable consola- 
tion that is left is Eternity itself. 

61. As it is to be struggles either way, he preferred 
the struggles of poverty to those of wealth and opu- 
lence, because earthly wisdom and heaven can be 
better reached in this way than in the other. 

62. A man's family now-a-days demands more of 
him than he demands of himself. 

63. Whilst his friends and neighbors were being 
defeated in political elections, become bankrupts or 
fallen into some other disgrace, he always found him- 
self in a state of freedom with his country, with a 
respectable supply of the necessaries of life, and on a 
higher moral standing than his fellow men. Thus 
much his philosophy had profited him, a profit that 
he considered could not be over-estimated. As Scho- 
penhauer remarked of himself, that his philosophy 
had not yielded him any material profit or gain, but 
that it had enabled him to save a great deal; and as 
experience teaches us that it is better to prevent an 
evil coining on than to cure it after it has come on, 



106 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

it is the highest wisdom to regulate our life in such a 
manner that the greater part of our mishaps and mis- 
fortunes will be forestalled. 

64. Life itself, as men like Christ teach, is no 
compensation for the misfortunes and miseries that it 
produces ; then it must certainly follow that all minor 
matters that relate to it, are subject to the same 
reasoning. This is evident from the fact that the less 
our effects in life are, the greater is our peace, and, 
consequently, happiness; for this reason all wise men, 
especially religious, withdraw from the world and 
preach self-denial. 

The question then arises, Why live at all ? Even 
Meister Eckart says, he does not know why, but he 
desires to live. It rests on the principle that a natu- 
ral law in us, as in every other being, vegetable as 
well, dictates to us that we should preserve our 
existence; and unless there be good reason to the 
contrary, to commit suicide would evince our own 
cowardice; to consummate our heroism, we must 
willingly contend against the Hydra of the world. It 
is the same in the world as it is in contests, which we 
do not seek nor desire, but when the circumstances 
necessarily force them on us, we must make a manly 
defence. This is the definition of life itself, and noth- 
ing else can be made of it. Fate having brought us 
into a world that proves but a prison to and imposes 
a life of slavery on by far the majority of mankind, 
and to the minority, at its best, it being not even 
desirable, a genuine hero will make the best of the 
situation, but when he finds that the welfare of man- 
kind requires it, as Christ, John and other martyrs 
did, or that there is no longer hope for prosperity of 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 107 

any kind, as is frequently the case with persons who 
are crippled, have incurable diseases or other good 
causes to make life itself too great a burden, he wil- 
lingly submits to death. 

65. Books and poverty were all that he had, two 
possessions in which no one envied him, and which, 
yet, to him were two of the greatest blessings of his 
life. 

66. Every act that is done by man, should be done 
out of love, and either for his own moral good or for 
the public good. A man who acts from compulsion, is 
a slave, and a man who has not the moral good in view, 
is a brute. 

67. Life is as the most charity fairs, namely, easy 
enough to get in, but, having so many fair damsels 
and things to tempt one's staying longer, very difficult 
to get out. 

68 If there be no vice or evil connected with one's 
character, the occasional remarks of gossip against it 
should rather console than annoy us; they are evidence 
of an uncommon character — higher happiness. 

69. The wise man acts from love; the ordinary man 
from necessity; the former is a free being, the latter 
is a slave. 

70. All men can escape from hunger, from cold and 
from heat, but not from their spiritual troubles; this 
ta something that only the wise man knows a cure for. 



108 



A TREATISE ON MAN. 



71. Iu everything that be pursued from pure love 
and admiration, he persevered, and, generally, finally 
succeeded; but in anything where his compensation 
was lucre, he soon disgusted of it, and, as a conse- 
quence, it ended as a failure. 

72. He remarked that it was the natural force and 
power that was in him that had produced him, that it 
was that that must preserve him, and that it was that 
that must end him; what, therefore, need he consult 
the opinion that the rest of the world had of him ? 

73. Life itself, at the best, is but a struggle and con- 
tending to preserve it. Now why add the luxuries and 
vanities of life to increase a state already sufficiently 
burdened ? 

74. If his aim was reached, namely, that of a con- 
tented soul, he was not concerned whether his floor 
was lacquered or his walls ornamented ; he felt that 
when he had reached that state that he had reached 
all, more than which Heaven could hardly grant him ; 
he therefore always felt that there was but one reli- 
able way of leading to anything like earthly bliss, and 
that was to do one's duty to one's-self and to the rest 
of the world. 



75. It is useless, it is simply folly, to grieve over our 
troubles, and yet, who is free from this folly? The 
best wisdom and experience teach us that things will 
take their course whether man add his own intellect- 
ual labors or not, and, therefore, the wisest way is 
simply to divert ourselves and take up with some 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. 109 

other employment when our present plans are frus- 
trated, and leave the matter to its own fate. 

76. That our wish to live is fulfilled, is the reward 
for our misfortunes of life. But to wish to live and at 
the same time to refuse to meet the evils connected 
with the fulfillment of this wish is inconsistent, and as 
unjust as it is to take another man's money unjustly, 
and then complain that it has to be returned. 

77. What a difference there is between the begin- 
ning and the end of our existence ! It is with life as 
when we enter into a negotiation with another, 
through whom we expect to be benefited in one wise 
or other; at first we see nothing but his good parts 
and traits, but when the matter is consummated and 
we find that he has sought his interests as well as we 
have ours, and that he has probably been more suc- 
cessful in the undertaking, whether justly or unjustly, 
we begin to see nothing but his bad parts and traits. 
Herein lies the great injustice that we do to ourselves 
and the rest of the world ; had we but considered that 
life, as this man, must necessarily have a shadow on 
the other side simply because the light is on this 
side, or that the light must be on the other side sim- 
ply because the shadow is on this side, as it is also 
with all material existences, and that fate must neces- 
sarily bring us to the other side, we should not have 
so rejoiced in the beginning nor mourned so in the end, 
and vice versa. 

78. In morality it is as in practical life, namely, a 
few must bear all the burden, whilst all the rest look 
on and refuse to give assistance, although no sooner 



110 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

than it is ascertained that the efforts of these few, or, 
probably, as it is often, of a single one, are a success, 
they are then prepared to accept all advantages re- 
sulting from it ; but if the originator of the undertak- 
ing had failed, not one of these applicants for benefits 
would have even given him his sympathy, on the con- 
trary, they would have even ridiculed and regarded 
him as insane. Such struggles does Genius have to 
undergo even when it is in pursuit of blessings that 
result more to the rest of mankind than to the orig- 
inator himself. The persecution and final execution 
of Christ is the best evidence what our fellows are 
and what we have to expect from them; let no man 
believe that Truth is a welcomed guest, and that it 
brings exterior blessings. 

79 X had invested his money and character so 
greatly in marriage certificates, that he had to end his 
days in a charitable insane asylum; and yet the othei 
sex thought he must have been very much of a gentle- 
man. 

80. If you have not the satisfaction of a thing's 
going right, at least have the satisfaction of its going 
wrong; thereby you will at least have the satisfaction 
of disappointing the evil Genius that superinduced it, 
and, at the same time, show yourself to be a hero. 

81. What a blessing is it not that our memory does 
not allow us to remember all our past and all our pres- 
ent misfortunes ! Why should we not therefore try to 
forget all such misfortunes as our intellect is not 
master enough to overcome ? 



HIS MISERY AND HAPPINESS. Ill 

82. Whether, as the Constitution of the United 
States secures to every man his liberty, a marriage 
certificate could not be declared to be unconstitu- 
tional ! 

83. If what our enemies say against us be true, we 
should not complain, because we deserve to be punish- 
ed for our faults ; if what they say of us be not true, 
neither should we complain, since then it has no mean- 
ing, as Socrates said of himself when he was being 
charged with an offence that he had never committed, 
and therefore declined to resent it. 

84. The general charges against a good man cease, 
but the general charges against a bad man remain, 

85. At the time that we are thinking evil of our 
friend, he is probably thinking well of us. 

86. The hut will give all that it promises, and more, 
the palace will not. 

87. The man who is at present enjoying a state of 
happiness, is aware that at any moment it may turn 
into a state of grief; the man who, from a mere popu- 
larity, sees himself celebrated the world over, feels 
that in a few years, but certainly after his death, he 
will be regarded as nothing; whilst the man of genius, 
though feeling his power as a man deserving immor- 
tality and the homage of his fellow men, has nothing 
but consolation as his compensation. 

However I try to turn my thought to the advantage 
of our present existence, I can not get rid of the con- 
viction that I have of the truth of the vanity of van- 
ities of Solomon. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE INTELLECT. 

1. Thought is but an action of the brain superin- 
duced by the other organs of the body; as these 
organs are in a continual and unceasing operation 
from the time that life enters the child to the time 
that life ceases in the old man, the action of the brain 
must be also proportionate. There is never any more 
of the cessation in the brain than there is a cessation 
in the bodily organs, otherwise the bodily organs 
would have nothing to act on the brain whilst it is in 
a state of what we call rest. During sleep the brain 
is at rest, but its action has not ceased ; so, the body 
rests, and yet is at the same time moving in one or 
the other parts of it. Kant says that we always 
dream in our sleep, although we do not know of it 
when we wake. All our thoughts are connected, and 
there is no more of a break in the chain of thought 
than there is a break or cessation in the action that is 
superinduced by the bodily organs. 

2. All thinking is one, that is, all operation of the 
brain is only one train of thinking, the beginning 
being the end and the end the beginning; just as one 
creation of nature is traceable to a remote one, so will 
it return in its due course of time. The end of a thing 
always reaches up to its beginning, just as the close 
of the day reaches to the beginning of the day, and 
the end of life meets the beginning of life. As time 

112 









THE INTELLECT. 113 

is always the same, its divisions always returning, so 
is all thought merely a circle, as it might be called. 

The brain is nourished and trained in the same 
manner as anything else ; the effect must therefore 
be the same. There are certain requisites necessary 
to produce a thought, as well as there are to produce 
any other creation, both constituted to create, thus 
keeping in a direct circle of action the one in conjunc- 
tion with the other. 

3. It is only when the brain is tired that the body 
requires rest, and the greater the brain, the more easily 
is the body tired, the sensibility being so great that 
the greatest part of the action of the body is conveyed 
to the brain, which is thus affected by it. With the 
lower animal, and all persons of a lower intelligence, 
the action of the body remains more in the body, it 
is not all conveyed to the brain, and therefore the 
brain will be affected only in proportion. 

But with the action of the brain itself, it is different; 
here, the greater the brain is, the more it is capable 
of working; extraordinary application of the brain of 
a man of medium intelligence will lead to derange- 
ment. We cannot imagine a man to possess such 
gigantic mental powers that they could not be fatigued 
and worn out, but we can very easily imagine that 
the animal of the lowest intelligence may require but 
little, almost no rest at all. 

4. Man is a being that is limited in his intellect ; its 
action is such that it can be engaged in but one thing 
at a time. The happiness that man enjoys never can 
be enjoyed by him in the whole, it must come in starts; 
the same it is with misery. As soon as man enjoys a 

8 



114 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

happy situation another happiness that could other- 
wise have been enjoyed by him withdraws to make 
way for the present one; so it is with misery. As soon 
as happy or sorrowful news comes to the possessor, 
other happy or sorrowful news is immediately for- 
gotten, the former merely taking the place of the lat- 
ter. Man would otherwise succumb under such a 
burden on the mind as to be the possesser of all happi- 
ness or all misery at one time, which we see is occa- 
sionally the case with persons who let all their happi- 
ness or misery take complete possession of them, so 
that they are unlit for anything else, and which in 
some cases, even of happiness, leads to death. The 
mind should therefore not be allowed to continually 
exercise itself on one subject, but should divert itself, 
otherwise it will lead to monomania; it also requires 
rest, the same as the body. 

5. The reason why intelligent men often or general- 
ly marry women of no intelligence and vice versa, and 
large men often or generally marry small women and 
vice versa, is because thereby the intelligence and cor- 
poral size are more properly distributed. If it were 
otherwise, since intelligence and corporal size are more 
or less hereditary, they would be confined too much to 
only a part of mankind. This, by the way, is another 
evidence that nature never allows any particular hu- 
man beings to possess anything in exclusion of the rest. 
If one parent possess particular intelligence and the 
other parent possess none at all, nature will confer on 
the child neither the whole good of the one nor the 
whole defect of the other, but will bestow some of both 
qualities on it; if both parents be superiorly wise or 
extremely lacking of intelligence, it is not seen, either, 



THE INTELLECT. 115 

that the child inherits double wisdom or double folly; 
here nature will again come to the relief and add 
some of her own wisdom or folly; in this manner 
everything is kept balanced, neither wisdom nor folly 
predominating at any particular time. 

6. The intellect is given to man to aid him in the 
wants that his civilization brings along with it. His 
instinct leads him through life as an animal, but it is 
his intellect that teaches him to lead another life in 
addition to this. 

7. Man having, in part, been deprived of his instinct, 
which he possessed in full when he was still a lower 
animal, his inventive genius increased for his support 
and general protection, and of those standing under 
him and therefore dependent on him. Medicine is an 
invention necessary to counteract the bad effects that 
his unnatural mode of living has brought about ; his 
appetite for delicacies and all eatables that are not ab- 
solutely necessary for the support of life, have caused 
him evils that he did not have as a lower animal, and 
he, therefore, required a science to meet such evils, not 
in medicine exclusively ( I being of the opinion that 
physicians and their medicines kill and injure the 
body more than they cure), but especially in diet and 
a judicious care of the body. 

But what we often call science and wisdom in regard 
to our health or body and general welfare, arises more 
from instinct than it does from the intellect; the 
majority of mankind possess almost no wisdom of 
intellect, and yet lead a healthy and have a long life, 
their instinct being of greater benefit to them than 
their intelligence, and therefore lead a life more direct- 



116 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

ly according to the dictates of nature. But as soon 
as something not originally natural — the intellect — 
conies into play, it becomes a double struggle, the one 
being as it formerly had been, namely, of the instinct, 
and that of the intellect added, which makes every 
such a being a being of double existence, physical 
and mental. This is the reason that the man of 
genius leads two lives. 

Only the Genius can, strictly speaking, be said to 
be intellectually wise, all the rest of mankind being- 
only instinctively wise; the former is the only one to 
whom an intellect can be ascribed and that only to a 
limited extent, that is, so far as he thinks of matters 
entirely separate and distinct from his own bodily 
welfare. 

8. With the wise men of all nations celibacy, self- 
denial and a rejection of everything that is worldly 
beyond the necessaries of life, has been taught, prais- 
ed and recommended. It has always and will always 
be true that the highest wisdom runs in an opposite di- 
rection with public opinion, manners and customs, and 
consequently, a collision takes place. Probably both 
are right, considering how every man is by nature con- 
stituted, for his own welfare. But for the moral and 
intellectual advancement of the human family, a course 
of life has always been recommended that stands in 
direct and positive opposition to what is generally 
followed. 

9. So far as our comprehesion reaches, everything in 
nature appears to be well done. It is as beings that 
comprehend and make a distinction between good and 
bad that we question the propriety of some things and 



THE INTELLECT. 117 

approve that of others. Now as perfection is what 
man always has in his mind, although he never 
reaches it, he knows, for the reason that he never 
reaches it, that nothing can be too good or too well 
doue. 

Nature does create some beings of greater purity 
and more approaching perfection, intellectually and 
morally, than it does the mass of mankind, and, so, 
compared to this mass, such beings are too good and 
too well made. 

10. The human family does not seem to be noted 
for any great wisdom, if we consider that when we do 
find a wise man, even though his wisdom be only prac- 
tical, we are in the habit of saying "There goes a 
wise man. " From this it is evident that the fools are 
the rule and the wise men the exception. 

11. The only satisfaction that a Genius has who 
will never receive the benefit during his life time, in 
writing an immortal work, is, as Schopenhauer says, 
Lis own satisfaction in performing a duty which 
pressed him until it was discharged. It would leave 
him no peace otherwise, any more than the hunger of 
his stomach would his body; the latter was only a 
physical performance of what the body wanted, so it 
was only a performance in the former that was de- 
manded, being so constituted that his intellectual 
labors were as much imposed on the intellect to be 
worked off as the food is forced on the stomach to be 
worked off through a state of digestion. 

12. To see a man or a multitude of men sitting in 
silence, calls forth respect, because it gives the ap- 



118 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

pearance of thought and meditation in them. Even 
though they be not capable of deep reasoning, one 
immediately sees that they are at least practicing no 
folly or vice; the mere cessation from these otherwise 
prevalent principles causes respect even in the com- 
monest mind. 

13. When I listen to people in their conversations, 
I am often struck with the wonderful wisdom and 
sagacity that they seem to possess ; but as soon as I 
see their works, it raises a doubt in my mind whether 
they be fit to be called rational beings at all; and 
whether what they do perform that has practical 
worth in it, be not a result more of their instinct. 

34. In the common affairs of life nature has so or- 
dained it that they are to be carried out by both 
intelligence and instinct combined; their success 
therefore lies more within the power of the ordinary 
man than it does in that of the Genius. Great delib- 
eration on common affairs ruins the whole plan; 
there is then an obstacle and an obstruction in every 
direction, and the mind from this loses faith in its 
own undertaking. A man who will bestow the same 
deliberation on a business project that a Genius 
would on the subject of the soul, would be entirely 
unable to find men who would deal with him on such 
principles, because men are not inclined to regard 
things in a theoretical light, not even those that are 
strictly theoretical, but will view everything as it may 
relate to their practice, to worldly application. Such 
a man would have to learn that worldly success lies in 
instinct and a mind that sees nothing more in things 
than is practically in them, as Schopenhauer says. 



THE INTELLECT. 119 

15. If the vulgar be intolerable to the Genius, the 
Genius is at times intolerable to the vulgar. His 
different way of regarding things, namely, in the 
theoretical sense, makes him in the eyes of the vulgar, 
who regard everything only in a practical sense, at 
times nothing but an intolerant member of their so- 
ciety ; they see that if his views were to prevail in their 
undertakings, they would prove fatal, and as it is their 
undertakings which have the control of man as an 
animal, they can justly exclude him from their society; 
because with the common man, taken in the mass, 
there is no desire to learn anything, and to teach, in- 
struct and guide is all that the man of Genius is ser- 
viceable for. 

16. Man as a being of intellectuality is small ; as he 
increased in intellectuality, he decreased in size, his 
reason now taking the place of his bodily strength. 
In his present state as compared to his brute state 
originally, he is a matter of quality, not quantity. As 
nature exposes her creatures to danger, she gives them 
reason or instinct in proportion to the danger. 

17. Since the lower animal has become domesticated, 
it has also become gradually possessed of some of 
man's qualities, such as intelligence, lack of extreme 
barbarity, his means of livelihood in general, and suf- 
fering more from heat and cold than in its wild state, 
etc. From these facts and the observations with dogs, 
namely, that a dog of superior breed and training will 
rarely associate with a common and vulgar breed, I 
am of the opinion that they too in proportion to their 
intelligence possess a certain pride or dignity— of the 
lowest order. 



120 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

18. The ordinary man judges from tlie dictates of 
his heart; in other words, as it is beautifully said, his 
wish is father to his thought. He does not meditate 
to form his resolutions; he feels them, follows them 
according to this feeling, and, as a result, falls into 
errors and injustice. If he do practice justice (which 
is based on the intellect ), it happens that his own in- 
terests coincide with those of the man he is dealing 
with, and then we hear him boast of how just a man 
he is. 

Mankind judge and esteem each other more in re- 
spect to the heart than in respect to the intellect. 
Therefore, a man with a big heart will always be wel- 
come to them, but a man with a great head is ostra- 
cized. A big heart causes love, but it requires a great 
head to inspire honor. This is a world of love (propa- 
gating); by its quantity it predominates over wisdom 
( non-propagating). 

19. Man's greatest services are of a negative char- 
acter, reforming and undoing what has been done; in 
fact, it may be said that all our acts serve as a nega- 
tive benefit; for instance, man invents a piece of 
machinery in order to undo a certain disadvantageous 
mode of doing anything, and these advantages, as 
they appear to be, again bring along with them their 
disadvantages, as they also appear to be, there being 
no end to man's wants and needs. 

It is man's ingenuity that leads him into many 
evils; hence the necessity of moralists, philosophers 
and reformers, who come to ignore or undo the acts 
that man has committed; their doings and teachings 
are not as those of the ordinary man, a going forward, 
practically, but rather a going backward. 



THE INTELLECT. 121 

20. Had man been left to his original instinct to 
guide him, he would not be led from the natural path, 
as he now is. From his luxuries and continual sexual 
intercourse, he has taken upon himself such an unnat- 
ural course of life that is equalled by no other animal ; 
his appetites and concupiscence have been so increased 
as to actually cause many men to shorten their lives 
by them. 

Although, occasionally, a Genius or practical phi- 
losopher be found, yet, before his brain has become 
sufficiently developed to see the evil results of such a 
dangerous course, it has probably become a second 
nature with him, from the example of others. This 
causes such a shame in the conscience of a noble be- 
ing, although it may be known only to himself, that 
what to the common man is in order, is to him an un- 
pardonable sin. 

With the majority of men there is no balancing of 
the thinking power, there is no deliberation. Every- 
thing is taken in an opposite sense from what it in 
fact is 5 had they still their original instinct, they 
would see only so much in things as it was intended 
they should find use for; or, rather, they would see 
nothing in them, but as nature would want them to 
use or practice tbem ; she would blindly lead them to 
them, without their being at all conscious of any in- 
tended object, as a wise monarch leads his people, but 
if he should question them themselves as to the advis- 
ability of his project, he would be led astray also. 

21. It is remarkable to see the great contrast there 
is in mankind between wisdom and folly, good and 
bad; in the common transactions of life one does not 
notice this, because here the one man is about the 



122 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

same, morally and intellectually, as what the other is : 
but we must go to the moralists, and compare their 
practical doings with those of the rest of mankind ; 
these men in their dealings with their fellow men 
never regard alone their own interests, but also those 
of the man with whom they are dealing, and if the 
two interests do not coincide, they will generally 
sacrifice their own for the benefit of their fellow man ; 
their whole life is generally passed away in endeavor- 
ing to improve and reform mankind, sacrificing, in 
some cases, their own lives. 

Now look on the other picture; we there find in 
most men the Jew, the egotistic, avaricious Jew, 
seeking for nothing but what helps to increase the 
pleasures of his body and the contents of his purse. 
It would actually appear from this that the two 
grades of men are sprung from different classes of 
beings, the one from gods and the other from beasts; 
for when I read the old Epictetus, how he admonish- 
es, or Christ, how he weeps and how he forgives, or 
Pascal, how passive and submissive, it is impossible 
for me to conceive whence the material from which 
these beings are sprung ; or when I read Tauler, or 
Eckart, or the u Deutsche Theologie," it looks like an 
entirely different world. 

22. The Genius is interested in the welfare of the 
whole race and world ; the ordinary man is interested 
only in himself. The former is continually laboring 
on problems that regard the whole of mankind, whilst 
the latter, being only animal, seeks his own profits 
and benefits, and those of others in whom he is direct- 
ly interested. The Genius labors a whole lifetime for 
the improvement of mankind, receiving probably not 



THE INTELLECT. 123 

even honor from his fellow men for it ; his only com- 
pensation being his own satisfaction in doing it. 
Make a proposition to a common man that yon want 
him to bestow a little of his attention to the benefit 
of his fellow men who require it, and his first question 
is what pay he is to get for it, or what good will that 
do him. His mind, he considers, belongs to himself, 
not to the whole world, as the wise man regards his. 

23. Friendship is a matter of the mind and the 
heart; therefore every person has true friendship in 
proportion to his intellect and moral character; the 
fool might therefore be said to have almost no true 
friendship. Love arises from the heart only and is 
therefore also among the lower animals between the 
two sexes, or between the parents and their young, 
this is instinctive ; or the attachment (which is also 
instinctive) that exists amoDg the lower animals of 
cohabiting together as a means of mutual protection 
and defence. This attachment and the ordinary love 
of Cupid, which exists between the two sexes, is all 
that a man of no intellectual parts possesses; this he 
mistakes for friendship. 

Friendship is lasting, but love only so long as a 
benefit or advantage is desired; the ordinary man 
always seeking his personal benefits and advantages, 
finding that they having ceased, his friendship, as he 
calls it, also ceases, but not so with the man of in- 
tellect; he feeling the everlasting one-ness of all 
beings and things, the same fate that all are sub- 
ject to, and the same origin from which all are 
sprung, makes it necessary for him to recognize that 
he who hungers must have relief, and even though 
the sufferer has offended, insulted and injured him. 



124 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

In such a case, each, the Genius and the fool, will 
exercise liis friendship toward the sufferer in propor- 
tion to his mental qualities. If it be his enemy, it will 
even do the fool good to know that he suffers, so little 
intellectual insight has he to know that he is doing 
the damage to himself. Buddhism, Christ, Pascal, 
Schopenhauer, the mystics and all true geniuses beau- 
tifully recognize this identity, this brotherhood exist- 
ing between all mankind. Christ says that we shall 
love our enemy as ourselves; and even though he has 
struck us on one cheek, we shall show our willingness, 
our submission ( by which is meant, we shall not com- 
plain even if it do occur a second time ) in being struck 
again. 

A man may lose respect for a man who has no mor- 
al character or may contemn him for the many injuries 
that he has committed against him and others, or for 
his folly, yet, if the friendship towards him be true, 
it nevertheless continues. In fact it is the nature of 
a man of genius and morality to be the friend of all 
men; he was their friend before he became acquainted 
with them, and will remain so even though there be a 
separation, or there be qo acquaintance at all. 

Most men in their intercourse with the rest of man- 
kind and the lower animal are actuated more by the 
heart than by the head. Women, even some of the 
best of them, might be said to act almost exclusively 
by the heart, and therefore I believe with certain 
thinkers that woman is not capable of a high and 
reliable friendship; her attachment, good will or 
charity, arising from the heart, is not lasting, it is 
fickle; she is continually being charged with coquet- 
ry, which even flatters the vanity of the heart of most 
of them. So in all contracts of business, the legal 



THE INTELLECT. 125 

or moral duty of every man will be performed in 
proportion to the strength of his mind; some men 
doing and performing all obligations that they owe to 
the rest of mankind because they feel the practical 
wisdom of u honesty is the best policy". 

There is a certain philanthrophy, humiliation and 
submission in some people that they bear to all men 
alike, whether friends or enemies, acquaintances or 
strangers; but this is also only instinctive, probably 
also a consciousness of the unity of all beings; it is a 
certain yielding to all events and occurrences without 
any deliberation over them; it is, in other words, tak- 
ing things as they come, without knowing why. 

Friendship can be said to be probably the sublimest 
characteristic that distinguishes man from the lower 
animal. Friendship, when found, is worth more than 
all riches can compensate or take the place of. So 
great is the good will of one man toward another, and 
so does it ennoble him, that for myself I would prefer 
the friendship of a beggar at a time when my stomach 
yearned for bread, to the fullest purse of the man 
whose charity proceeds from compulsion. But here 
again, like every thing that is great and beautiful, its 
seldom occurrence, it being dependent on a great 
intellect and a great heart, is the reason of its sublime 
character. 

24. Xo one thing is of more interest to man than 
another; the fool in his physical structure is as much 
a source of human study as the brain of the greatest 
Plato. The preference that one thing receives over 
another, arises with the cemmon mind, that regards 
things only so far as they relate directly to his body, 
and what does not affect his body, nature would not 



126 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

have needed to trouble herself about in coating, ©o 
far as lie is concerned — so subjective is lie. It is other- 
wise with the Genius ; he, from a consciousness of the 
relationship that there must necessarily exist between 
himself and all the rest of the universe, finds an inter- 
est in every thing, how far and distinct soever it may 
be in affecting his body ; knowing that if it was en- 
titled to creation and existence, it too was entitled to 
his observation— so objective is he. 

25. Plato knew that his Ideas resulted in no satis- 
factory answer in metaphysics ; he regarded them as 
he did his Eepublic in matters of state, namely, as 
necessary speculations to keep the human mind in its 
present state of thinking, and, if posssble, to advance 
farther. The whole of Plato's speculations may be 
regarded as an intellectual basis for human enlighten- 
ment. 

His speculations, being merely such and not based 
on experience and human possibility, none but a very 
able mind should undertake to treat on them, other- 
wise they will be abused, as it appears from Epicte- 
tus that even in Eome during his day, Plato's senti- 
ments in regard to the community of wives and chil- 
dren were being used by certain women as a precedent 
for possible practice. Neither must it be assumed 
that Plato was in earnest about his theology; he 
wrote according to the spirit of his time, and it must 
not be taken for granted that he entertained the same 
thoughts in regard to religion, especially as to the 
numerous gods, that the common people had, any 
more than when a modern philosopher in making use 
of the words God and soul for a moral application 
means by them what the vulgar understand by these 
terms. 



THE INTELLECT. 127 

26. The Genius possesses such an intellect, that he 
can not help but be at the same time moral, because 
morality is a necessary consequence of this intellect. 
It is true that there are probably a few cases where 
intellectual men swerved from truth and morality to 
a limited extent, as it was the case with Bacon, yet 
the character of this man in general was not so. From 
the earnestness with which the Genius pursues his 
works in endeavoring to moralize mankind, he always 
has a moral basis. As it follows that a man who lacks 
intellect, also lacks morality, (though he may act and 
deal honestly) so it follows that a man who pos- 
sesses intellectuality also possesses morality, though 
he may act and deal dishonestly at times, which 
may arise from the fact that he claims it as the 
privilege of a Genius, that is, that being such 
he is not subject to the ordinary commandments of 
honest conduct, in the same manner as a king is sup- 
posed to do no wrong ; the laws that they both make 
are for the rest of mankind, whose character requires 
them; besides, as they made them, so have they a 
right to suspend or recall them ; or, as it has been 
beautifully said, to the wise man no counsel and to 
the just man no laws. 

27. With the Genius, the body lives for him, as it 
was with Socrates, who ate so that he might live, but 
did not live so that he might eat. The intellect of the 
Genius serving to the benefit of all mankind, which is 
a greater purpose than his individual interests, every- 
thing outside of the intellect itself is considered by 
him but to serve its purpose. 

It is otherwise with the people in general ; they 
regard the head but as a means of serving the animal 



128 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

passions ; this reaches the end of keeping the human 
family in existence, and keeping it in a state of mate- 
rial prosperity. 

28. When one observes the innumerable workings 
of nature, and views the heavenly bodies in their revo- 
lutions, one can not be persuaded that the little mind 
of man was intended to comprehend all this. It has 
always appeared to me that there must be something 
entirely different, nothing like what we imagine, at 
the back of it all ; that the mind of man was intended 
for his welfare and prosperity as an animal and being 
of civilization, and therefore not adapted or suited in 
the least to look through the mist that hides from us 
nature's origin. Question, whether there be anything 
at all, whether it be not only a phantom of your brain 
that there is anything? I can not explain myself; the 
unfathomable subject allows no explanation. If man 
is as subject to the changes of existence, from birth to 
death, he is also, as all creatures, but a means, a sub- 
missive subject, and, therefore, not authorized or em- 
powered to construe nature's laws and powers. 

29. Man's brain is unfit and incapable to compre- 
hend the past or the future, not even the present, ex- 
cepting as to the needs of his body ; to dwell on them 
is nothing but boasting of a faculty which does not 
exist ; therefore true theologians say that God can not 
be comprehended or described, he exists for the 
human mind as an Idea, and nothing more must be 
presumed. The Universe before our birth was noth- 
ingness to us, so it is now and so it will be after our 
death, for as soon as death has taken charge of the 
body, the brain's functions have also ceased to act, and 



THE INTELLECT. 129 

there is therefore no intellect to comprehend any- 
more than there was before birth. 

The problem of the Universe is one that not all an- 
tiquity could, not all the present, not ail posterity 
can answer, and by once and for all admitting the 
incapacity of the human mind to handle the subject, 
as Kant said of God and the soul, is to prevent dwell- 
ing upon a subject that causes great confusion and 
disturbance in morality, whence it enters into relig- 
ion and thence into politics, resulting in revolutions 
and wars— all about a subject that the one is as igno- 
rant of as the other. 

30. It is hardly possible to imagine how the human 
intellect should presume to form an opinion that it 
was created by anything that, to us, resembled itself, 
or that man is the object and that everything else is to 
serve as his means. What the original thinkers meant 
by the idea of God or the soul was allegorical ; it is 
now applied by the vulgar to their own petty wants 
and desires. It is a misapplication and abuse of the 
two sublimest ideas that man is the originator of; its 
abuse is best seen in religion, which is nothing but a 
means of maintenance for a good part of mankind 
directly, and for a still greater part indirectly. 

31. Man has some foresight, and, in many things, 
prophesies as well. Yet he himself, whom he is sup- 
posed to know best of all, can not foretell what he 
will do or what he will want, for by the time the occur- 
rence takes place, his whole circumstances have alter- 
ed, and they alter his case. A wise man, having 
studied himself and the rest of mankind, knows about 
in general what his position in one year hence will be, 





130 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

and can therefore very nearly tell what his wants will 
then be. Such a man is wise in the proper sense of 
the word. The most men act acccording to their 
present feeling, and as their humor changes even dur- 
ing the space of a single day, it is entirely unsafe to 
rely upon their promises. 

32. In the ordinary works of man or of nature, the 
genius stands with renewed admiration in viewing 
them, and finds sufficient means of thought to engage 
him a whole life time; whilst the man of mediocre 
thought passes them by, taking no notice of their 
existence. So it is with the individual ; where a man 
of judgment and insight will see a moralist, a philoso- 
pher, the common man will see nothing but an animal 
with two legs and a high forehead. 

33. Man strives with might and main to make his 
thoughts reach to Heaven, and to imitate the works 
of nature ; and considering the difference that there 
exists intellectually between him and the lower ani- 
mal, he does exceedingly well ; but with all his efforts, 
when compared to nature, he is but a farce ; he can 
chisel an Apollo or a Venus, but to give them life is 
entirely beyond his power ; although it is all well, for 
this is the most that can be demanded of him. Yet to 
an uninterested spectator it is but matter of laughter 
and disgust, or else a sympathetic feeling, to see a man 
contend and contend for three score and ten years, and 
at the end of that time at the most and best probably 
leave some moral instructions for his fellow men. 

34. The fool being in order in the world, he has 
much less practical care and trouble than the wise 



THE INTELLECT. 131 

man ; being like the rest of mankind more than like 
the wise man, he in everything finds his equals, and 
everything good enough to answer his wants. The 
fool seeks outside of himself, and inasmuch as this 
outside is large and replete with the pleasures that 
man has invented and the necessaries of life, if he do 
not go into the excess, his cares, practically, are always 
more limited. 

The wise man finds his happiness only in himself; 
he looks around to find those with whom he can com- 
municate, but finds none but those that have preceded 
him ( the dead ), and those that are yet to come. It has 
often been said that the wise man alone is happy; 
this is true when we consider his life in an intellectual 
and moral sense ; the sublime happiness and enjoyment 
that his intellect yields him when it is in its full action, 
and the consolation and contentment of mind that his 
moral character give him, have not their equal. The 
happiness and contentment of mind increases as age 
increases. With the fool, every time his body has been 
satisfied, his whole satisfaction ceases ; as he contin- 
ues in the enjoyment of worldly pleasures and empty 
honors, so do his desires keep increasing and there is 
no boundary; he is always making his condition worse; 
when his desires have left him and old age has come, 
as Schopenhauer says, he is incapable of knowing 
how to dispose of himself, unless he be a man who 
can find entertainment in some practical employment 
in addition to his business. 

35. I have always noticed that, generally speaking, 
conquerors, generals and popular statesmen belong 
to the more common and ordinary class of men, 
having the propensities and qualities more of the 



132 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

lower animal, than those of the Genius. Fundamen- 
tally, this must be true ; to take other countries, to 
kill human beings in battle, by strategy, and to take 
part in the common transactions of the populace, are 
all resorts of achieving fame through rapine and theft, 
through murder, and through deception and imposi- 
tion, underlying them all being but an immoral prin- 
ciple, being covered and hidden by the enormous and 
gigantic shape it takes, under pretence of being for 
the welfare of the victim, in fact being only for the 
benefit of the individual himself, who sits on his horse 
and orders his children to battle, or the man at court 
or in council speculating with the sacred rights of a 
whole nation — to be able to give him a standing in 
the eyes of the world. 

If a man be truly great, he makes no efforts directly 
to declare it to the world ; he knows it will declare it- 
self; it is only the man himself who is not truly great 
that must make his own efforts to make himself cele- 
brated. Now, we find that the class of men of whom 
I am here speaking, with but few exceptions, are 
always candidates for their own honors, by continual 
struggling and persistent effort; with a good store of 
forwardness and impudence in the rear, they succeed 
in making themselves heard, and by an occasional 
successful stroke ingratiate themselves into the hearts 
of their countrymen. 

Read Plutarch, and you will see that men whom the 
world never would have otherwise heard from became 
successful generals and statesmen, because the affairs 
of their country happened to take such a turn that 
they found that they were the very men to help it out 
of its misfortunes, which they did by any means lying 
within their power, moral or immoral, and the world 



THE INTELLECT. 133 

proclaimed them heroes ; thousands of soldiers being 
ready at their command to spill their blood, and did 
spill it, the leader receiving the spoils and honors. 

The success of a general lies in engineering; now, as 
engineering is connected with mathematics, I do not 
think that he is capable of abstract thinking, even 
supposing him to be the best of the kind, and can not 
be endowed with the qualities of a statesman; in 
our country he should never become President. As 
Schopenhauer says, a general being a man of acts, he 
does not by far stand in the same position as the 
thinker, and, therefore, in my mind, if he be entitled 
to be called a Genius, is one of a subordinate kind. 
He relies for his honors on his uniform ; this is his 
certificate that he is entitled to honors ; his own acts 
not being works, as is the case with the thinker, he 
requires something striking to make an impression on 
the eye, which his acts do not make on the mind of the 
spectator. History has to herald his doings to the 
world, otherwise the world would not be aware of 
them. 

Where it is a case of self-defence for the country, it 
is different ; here the defender is not seeking his own 
benefit, but is seeking the protection of his country, 
and for that very reason will resort to the means that 
are only necessary for this purpose. When we are be- 
ing attacked without cause, we have a right to use all 
means to defend ourselves if these means do not en- 
croach on the rights of our enemies, no matter what 
their apparent phase may be, or if the damage that is 
done to our enemy be trifling to the damage that is 
thereby avoided. This is the meaning of "white lies," 
and was resorted to, it seems, by Christ himself to 
avoid his persecutors. 



134: A TREATISE ON MAN. 

Frederick the Great was right in not showing the 
same honors to his field marshals and generals as he 
did to himself and Voltaire, the latter being moralists, 
practical and theoretical instructors of mankind, the 
former being only perpetrators of acts of which they 
probably did not even lay the plan. 

The true statesman stands, in my opinion, on a 
much higher grade; he has something of the moral 
in him; he seeks the welfare of a nation, and an indi- 
vidual working for the benefit of others, always has 
something sublime in him. The statesman or mon- 
arch is, at the same time, when there is true greatness 
in him, a philosopher, taking part in practice and in 
theory. 

36. The reason why some people of ordinary intelli- 
gence will spend whole hours in conversation on sub- 
jects that it is impossible to see their importance, is 
because such matters are of importance to them ; con- 
sidering the part that they take in making up the 
greatest part of the human family, it is evident why 
this is all that interests them ; it is of as much worth 
to them as the search after the stone is to the philoso- 
pher, every man having his functions to act, and he 
performing them as it was intended that he should. 
Such people feel that they too have a part to play, and 
therefore demand to be heard, at least among them- 
selves; and, always being in the majority, they are the 
rule, and therefore, in such matters, dictate, whilst the 
wise man, with all his intellectuality, is relegated to his 
silence. 

37. The men who are the founders of a particular 
system in philosphy, science, politics or religion, are 



THE INTELLECT. 135 

the least to show any pride in regard to it. It is the 
same in this with the intellect as it is with the moral 
character. Those who are great or good in fact know 
that the fact alone that (hey are so will eventually 
herald itself. Take money, for instance; the greatest 
admirers of it are not that class who invented the 
money system, but that class who possess nothing but 
the shrewdness to earn or accumulate it, especially 
those who obtained it without merit. So the theories 
of a God and the immortality of the soul had as their 
founders philosophers and thinkers who were as free 
and far from being men of the church and religion, 
as there is difference between genuine piety and 
hypocrisy. The past and present ages show that the 
clergy, who are employed merely to lay down the gos- 
pel to an ignorant congregation as a school-master lays 
down the elementry text to his scholars, are the great- 
est abusers of religion, for they make a business out 
of it, a means of social standing, and assume a pride 
that is one of the greatest objects of Christ's religion 
to suppress. 

The same abuse is carried on in philosophy and 
all the sciences; men who merely pursue the study 
of any one of them and possess no genius what- 
ever in regard to it, are the ones who enrich their 
pockets by it, and in their own estimation place them- 
selves above men who are probably their masters in 
their own vocation. 

38. I believe that the lack of genius among certain 
nations is owing to the lack of incitement and induce- 
ment. For instance, as soon as a certain people make 
a beginning in civilization, sciences, arts and philoso- 
phy, they keep increasing until they probably reach 



136 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

the highest state; because the works of one genius 
have an influence on another. But as soon as erudi- 
tion and learning are neglected, all matters of intel- 
lectuality become matters of indifference, and the 
whole nation falls into anarchy, ignorance and super- 
stition. 

Necessity is the mother of inventions. If the neces- 
sity do not exist, or the youth be not reminded and 
influenced by it. his genius, of course, will lie more or 
less dormant; yet it might be said that under these 
very circumstances of anarchy, ignorance and super- 
stition, the necessity and reminder do exist. It can 
be said, that a true Genius, under whatsoever circum- 
stances, will disclose the power of his mind; but his 
people themselves will show nothing similar unless it 
be more general. Had his surroundings influenced 
and induced him, I believe that there is many a rus- 
tic at the plow, many a carpenter at the bench and 
many a smith at the anvil, who could write a better 
philosopheme or give better advice to kings than the 
miserable philosophasters and demogogues that now 
occupy these honorable positions. 

39. Our present mode of living requires more than 
that of former, especially much earlier ages; the re- 
quirements have increased and are probably daily 
increasing, unless one wants to live more in direct 
accordance with nature. This is as well true in the 
manufacture of things as it is in the manner of living. 

All has its purpose, and arises from the necessity of 
things. In antiquity the number of human beings 
was not so great, and, consequently, the different ways 
of obtaining a subsistence were not so many; whilst 
in modern times the human family is so great, that the 



THE INTELLECT. 137 

means to earn a livelihood are in proportion. Also, 
more space was required for habitation; as an exam- 
ple of this, the discovery of America offers one. Ne- 
cessity pressing, the mind is put to work to answer 
the needs. 

40. It is impossible to be a thinker, especially a 
poet, unless the passions be moved; a person, there- 
fore, of indifference to persons or things around him 
can never be a Genius; or if a person have such sur- 
roundings as leave him in perfect peace and quiet, so 
that neither his admiration nor contempt is moved, 
his mind is not in action; he can therefore never 
produce immortal works. 

For a true Genius, it appears that poverty has a 
better influence on him, beauseit actuates his mind to 
thinking, and makes him feel, especially at times of 
great need, the effects of fate and the superior powers 
of nature. Goethe also says sublimely that a man 
who never ate his bread in tears or who never sat 
weeping at his bed-side, does not know the heavenly 
powers. Struggles in misfortunes are in order to the 
human mind to bring out its full strength and energy, 
the same as necessary labor is to the body. The noble- 
man has his meat set before him, he has his bed made, 
his horse saddled, without knowing what countries his 
spices and luxuries come from, what fowl lost its life 
to stuff and till his mattress with, or that the horse 
that he rides has probably more true and natural no- 
bility in him than the star that he wears on his breast 
can confer on him; there is no incitement in him to do 
anything that is great and good. 

Besides, poverty leaves the mind free from all world- 
ly temptations and snares, and lets it dwell alone on 



138 



A TREATISE ON MAN. 



subjects of a higher nature. Love, contempt, hunger, 
thirst and cold, aided by fancy, are what superinduce 
the poetical outbursts of the man of genius, and make 
his works interesting to every one, because these are 
effects that every one is subject to. 

A very little part of the Genius belonging to the 
world, he wants but a very little part of it. But the 
ordinary man belongs, heart and soul, to the world ; he 
flatters it, he honors it, and weeps for it; therefore he 
is its favorite and is overloaded with its bounties. 

Man has left his original state but a short distance 
behind his present state. Now when these wants are 
supplied, it is better for the mind and the body that 
there be no superfluity, and therefore a virtuous man, 
a man who truly loves his child, will always recom- 
mend a very moderate degree of worldly possessions 
to his son ; this will compel the child to seek progress, 
which develops the intellect ; it will compel his body 
to labor, which will keep it sound and healthy, and 
will keep it at a distance from vice and evil — the best 
of all. 

Nature never intended that man should be rich, or 
live any more artificially, or resort to artificial means 
of curing, than in proportion as he has abandoned the 
original state of nature as a lower animal. Therefore 
Chamfort so strikingly says: "La nature ne m ? a 
point dit : Ne sois point pauvre ; encore moins : Sois 
riche ; mais elle me crie : Sois independant !" Money 
being only a means of negotiation between man and 
man in his civilized state, only so much is needed as 
will supply him with the wants that are required in 
this state, and this being only limited, this is what 
the world calls poverty. But in this sense poverty 



THE INTELLECT. 139 

is in order according to the wishes of the gods, and 
therefore the gods ( of this world ) seek it. 

41. When Christ and the philosophers speak of de- 
nying this world and betaking ourselves to solitude, 
that happiness lies in doing nothing practical and 
caring for nothing practical, it must be understood 
that not all mankind are advised to this course of 
life ; for such a mode of life for the mass of mankind 
would lead to revolutions and anarchy, indolence and 
all kinds of vice, as it is with the rich class whose 
wealth has been accumulated by an ancestor, and 
they themselves are not in the least called upon to 
devote any of their time to earning a livelihood ; their 
time is spent in all the evils, vices, extravagances and 
bad examples that tend to their own misery and that 
of all those connected with them; so that it would 
have been better had their ancestor left them penni- 
less, to be compelled to take their part in the struggle 
for existence, and thus become worthy members of 
society. Of all the bad examples for leading people 
into vice, evil and misery, nothing can equal the 
luxury of the rich. If the world depended upon the 
intellect of the wealthy part of mankind for its civil- 
ization, the human race would be in a deplorable 
state of advancement. 

42. The admonitions of Christ and the other philos- 
ophers apply to the common class of people to the 
extent of continually reminding them that there is no 
real value in money and worldly possessions. But as 
they everywhere praise the industry, thrift and 
economy of the practical philosopher, as I might term 
him, they evidently think that such a man has found 



140 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

his right place in the world. But by practical philos- 
opher is by no means to be understood a man who 
keeps on accumulating and hoarding up his worldly 
wealth, all for himself and those he shall leave be- 
hind hiin, disregarding the claims of the poor or 
meritorious, or not giving it until he knows that lie 
himself can not any longer use it ; for this is that very 
class who are referred to when Christ and the philos- 
ophers speak of the contempt of worldly possessions. 
It is the intellectual part of mankind, and that part 
of the unintellectual that can make itself practically 
useful, such as a monk or nun, that are admonished, 
because, by having their minds fixed on worldly 
affairs, it is impossible to think of anything higher, 
and thereby the world would be deprived of their sal- 
utary examples and services in matters of charity and 
humanity; there must also be grades between the 
highest (the anointed) and the lowest (the people). 

43. The practical part of man leads to enlighten- 
ment also, for it invents our different modes of scien- 
tific and philosophical communication, as well as the 
daily needs of a civilized life. For progress, there- 
fore, the human race requires the Genius to lay out 
the plan of human existence and the ordinary man to 
carry out this plan. 

44. The pendulum of the clock is the same to it as 
the breath is to the animal; they are both the cause of 
setting the two respective existences into operation. 
The spring of the clock may be considered the same to 
it as the heart is to the animal. Ingenuity is given to 
man that he may live in accordance with his state of 
intelligence ; and as man is nothing but nature in his 



THE INTELLECT. 141 

own structure in every respect, and therefore subject 
to her laws in every respect, it is again consistent that 
all his works should bear a similarity to the works of 
nature. 

45. Sleep is merely a cessation of the thinking oper- 
ation of the brain ; hence it is during sleep that the 
brain receives its rest and recreation. We general- 
ly feel sleepy after we have partaken of a sumptuous 
dinner, because immediately after eating, the digestive 
organs are in operation, which therefore deprives the 
brain of its full action. The closing of the eyelids 
serves merely as a protection for the eye against light 
which is only a force produced by heat, and against all 
other injuries that this delicate member would be sub- 
ject to when it is impossible to be on its guard. To 
close the eyelids voluntarily will produce sleep sooner 
than if we wait until they close themselves, for the 
reason that the brain is thus deprived of one of its 
senses, which are the source of its thoughts. But 
should the brain be already supplied with matter for 
thought by one of the other four senses, sleep can not 
be produced in spite of the greatest efforts. People 
of very mediocre thought, the negro, for instance, as 
it is also with the lower animal, can fall asleep under 
aimost any state of their senses; or, rather, their 
senses are not in operation. 

46. The timorousness and obedience that the lower 
animal shows to man is because of his intellect. The 
instinct teaches it that man is a being of ingenuity, 
and therefore is superior to it ; this instinct it inherit- 
ed from its parents. All domestic animals know the 
power of man, and therefore a herd of cattle will allow 



142 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

themselves to be driven by a mere child. But wild 
animals, that have no such instinct, will resist a 
human being. 

47. To prevent anger and its bad consequences is 
to let the occasion at which one becomes exasperated 
die out of the mind at the time that it takes place; 
not to let it have any longer thought will extinguish 
it. Besides, how little generally is not the matter in 
its consequences and results at which our anger rises ! 
it seems too unmanly to dwell upon it. 

To let the world go as it will insist on going, after 
one has done his own duty and made such corrections 
as lie within his power, is the best method. All exas- 
peration is only the cause of increasing itself with the 
most people, who find only too great a delight in tor- 
turing a man when they see that his indignation 
rises at their mischievous conduct; they should be 
regarded as people too far beneath the standard of 
mankind, to let them know that their conduct is 
unworthy of a superior man's notice. If demagogues 
and vile scribblers were left unnoticed, the world 
would not be a continual field of contention and dis- 
cord, and literature and philosophy degraded. It is 
an unfortunate state of things to be born among 
cattle, but only so much the greater is one to regard 
them as such. Tears are in order in effeminate 
eyes, but resignation to the manly head. Thus it is 
a good rule that what can not be avoided should be 
forgotten and dropped at the moment, and the mind 
be allowed to seek other employment. 

48. The operation of the brain seems to be like the 
real essence of life itself, the truth of which is entire- 



THE INTELLECT. 143 

ly to be hidden from us ; probably it is the essence it- 
self, hence the difficulty of comprehending its work- 
ings; it is Psyche, it is non-entity. You can not grasp 
it physically, and what can not be grasped physically 
can not be grasped mentally, if it could, it would be 
that it would handle and comprehend itself. Where 
there is no brain, no intellectual force, in the animal 
or in the plant creation, there it is not claimed that 
there is a soul ; and the higher the intellect, the higher 
is the soul-like character of the individual, and as soul 
is a theory not demonstrable, so is the operation of the 
brain a mystery; it is simply Kant's "Ding an Sich" 
or Schopenhauer's "Wille," or Plato's "Idea." 

49. The size and quality of the brain are what con- 
stitute the great head ; when these two are combined 
in one individual, nature has created her rarest being, 
so rare that she has not material enough to create 
many like him. But it seems improbable that nature 
should grant to only probably two or three men, in a 
century, I can hardly say this number, the greatest 
quantity and at the same time the best quality of 
brain; such beings would seem to be too unnatural. 
This theory is correct in regard to all material parts 
of any being; Hercules did not have the largest and 
at the same time the best muscles ; in regard to qual- 
ity, any wrestler at the Olympian games could have 
surpassed him. But to be a metaphysician, as Kant 
was, there is a large, gigantic brain structure requir- 
ed; and, as we see with the Germans, who in general 
have a large head, that they have produced the deep- 
est thinkers of modern times. And as all things are 
possible with God, we have no right to presume abso- 
lutely that it has never occurred that one man sur- 



144 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

passed the whole human race in intellectual quantity 
and quality. But as relates to thinkers in general, 
it can be safely said that the one is created for depth 
of thought and therefore requires a large, the largest, 
brain with a more than ordinary good quality added; 
this class is most rare ; whilst the other is created for 
vigor of thought and therefore a good, the best, qual- 
ity of brain, with a more than ordinary size added ; 
this class is more numerous. To the former belong 
Plato, Kant, and in part Aristotle, Schopenhauer and 
a few others, who can be reached only by men like 
themselves, and in part by the second class ; but they 
are certainly entirely out of reach of the vulgar ; to 
the second class belong Buddha, Christ, Bacon, Pas- 
cal, Spinoza and many others, who can be reached by 
the first class, by each other, and, in part, by the 
more able class of learned and thoughtful men in gen- 
eral, and for this reason have the greatest celebrity of 
all mortals. 

50. The practically honest man is as he is because 
his heart is such ; it is not out of thinking that he prac- 
tices honesty, but it is out of feeling, consequently he 
is practical (virtuous), not theoretical (moral). As he 
gave his action of heart for the benefit of mankind, 
namely, by recognizing their rights as well as his 
own, so does he in return deserve the action of their 
heart (love), but not their honor, this being some- 
teing of so high an order (when perfectly applied) that 
his action, which confined itself only to that part of 
mankind with whom he came into contact, and, espec- 
ially, because he probably confers no benefit on them 
by improving their condition, but only does not make 
their condition worse, is not its equivalent. Such a 



THE INTELLECT. 145 

man is entitled to a certain honorable mention, since 
his acts are praiseworthy. 

51. Genius is more or less hereditary. Schopen- 
hauer confines the hereditariness to the mother. It is 
remarkable that, with but very few exceptions, great 
men have left no great sons. It is a very difficult 
question to deal with, and probably will therefore 
never be fully solved. Mature creates a great man, 
and in order still to keep the human race in their nat- 
ural state, stops here and sends the son of such a man 
back to where she left the others. Although there are 
some ages in the history of man where there are great- 
er lights and the people more enlightened than at 
others, yet there is no continual progression in intel- 
lectuality ; it is with the race as it is with the individ- 
ual; although he one day displays qualities of a god, 
the next day he wallows in the filth of a beast. But 
it is this rarity, this seldomness of the appearance of 
a Genius, that makes him great ; were there a contin- 
ual progression, the existing generation would regard 
with contempt everything of the past. 

52. The people judge a Genius from his exterior, and 
apply the same sentiments and feelings that they them- 
selves possess also to him. Although the passions also 
annoy him, his continual efforts are to guard against 
those beastly temptations that surround every man, 
and his labors are directed to be more of the man 
than of the brute. Even if he do satisfy certain de- 
sires, it is merely a momentary condescension to the 
Devil in order not to be annoyed by him ; it is not out 
of an animal instinct, connected with the belief that 
now the blessed state has arrived ; it is but fulfilling 

10 



14G A TREATISE ON MAN. 

a duty for which he was placed in this world, as all 
men are. The animal part, more or less, is connected 
with the moral part of a Genius; but considering 
that it is but subordinate compared to his teachings 
and a life-long pursuit of self-reformation, leading, in 
extreme cases, to an actual denial of what the vulgar 
call the necessaries of life, as it was with Buddha, 
Christ, John and others, such errors of his character 
as are probably only a necessary consequence of his 
solitary and abstemious course of life, arising from the 
fact that he has closed up every other avenue that 
would otherwise lead to his personal satisfaction, are 
no justification to condemn the man or his works ; and 
what, in a Stoic or Cynic, would be weakness, yet for 
a man reared in the midst of worldly temptations and 
allurements, a mis-step is at the most momentary 
with him, and by no means powerful enough to take 
the man himself along with it. 

53. In spite of the great services that a Genius rend- 
ers in enlightening and moralizing mankind, the world 
hardly allows him a hermitage in which to live in 
peace. The man of wealth and riches does not know 
that it is only by virtue of philosophy and civilization 
that he has indirectly attained to his present posses- 
sions, and that if it were not for the philosopher, he 
would still be an original natural brute in the forest. 

It is therefore not charity nor benevolence to give 
support and maintenance to a man who leads the 
human race out of all its vice and evil, but it is justice, 
which he can claim by invoking the laws of nature, 
that, because they have made him such, have deprived 
him of the time and, probably, capacity for earning a 
livelihood otherwise. But knowing with what little 



THE INTELLECT. 147 

favor demands of justice, still less those of charity, are 
met, he seldom presents himself before a tribunal that 
grants only when absolute necessity demands it. 

The great misfortune would be that if the state un- 
dertook to assist such men, if such a thing were possi- 
ble, the right would be abused, as it is with military 
pensions, this excellent means of many unworthy sub- 
jects living a life of ease and laziness. It is therefore 
for men of means and easy circumstances in life to give 
assistance to such men. It is true that there are 
men, more or less, in every large city, whose good 
judgment would allow of a liberal philanthrophy were 
they to find their meritorious and deserving man; 
but unless he announce himself, he will almost inevita- 
bly be neglected. The wealthy class throw millions of 
dollars away annually for subjects of art that have no 
merit in them, yet will neglect or overlook him who 
is a genuine artist, by associating with whom they 
would in fact ennoble themselves. 

54. The idealism of the thinker becomes so habitual 
with him even in the ordinary affairs of life, that in 
consequence thereof he is often imposed upon by the 
affair itself, or by the representations of others. His 
mode of reasoning is so entirely different that his con- 
clusions vary from the conclusions of the practical 
man; his being continually in the realm of ideas, and 
partaking only to a limited extent in the ordinary pur- 
suits of life, the business-like reasoning of the man of 
practice is entirely strange to him. He therefore 
often wonders how men have the patience to labor, 
for whole hours, on a subject, whose result to him ap- 
pears to be childish. 



148 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

The Genius inhabits a temple, the interior of which 
the ordinary man has never seen ; it being something 
entirely for himself, he is left to his own resources, and 
the world, not being able to make use of him, is entire- 
ly willing to leave him there, to his own satisfaction,, 
but only upon condition that he do not make himself 
obnoxious to them, namely, by attacking their vices. 

55. Philosophers in laying down their theories al- 
ways make their statement positive, and what is only 
their opinion, and that sometimes a very doubtful one, 
they state simply as an unequivocal truth. It arises 
from the fact, that, they being men without their 
superiors, and can therefore not clearly be contradict- 
ed, for the rest of mankind it is a truth ; besides, to 
themselves their theories are truths. Christ never 
uses circumlocution. 

56. There is nothing handsome but that it has its 
use ; otherwise it would not be handsome. Everything 
that has not its proper use is not handsome. There 
are, nevertheless, things that are no longer of any 
practical use, and yet in our eyes they are handsome \ 
but it can be relied upon, that, at the time they were 
invented and first applied, they were of utility, and 
the reason that we consider them handsome, is be- 
cause we have their original object still in view. 
Therefore, by the way, as a rule of beauty, never 
have a thing that has not its use. 

The ancient Greeks never used a stone in their 
structures unless it had its use ; hence in all ages 
their architecture, at least that of their public build- 
ings, has been one of grandeur, and taken as a model; 
we are so indebted to them in this respect, that, com- 



THE INTELLECT. 149 

pared to them, Schopenhauer says, we are nothing 
but barbarians. The nations following the Gothic 
architecture have their structures so encumbered 
with unnecessary parts, that it disfigures them to the 
extent of actual disgust. But to see it revived in this 
age of admiration for ancient Greece, one can hardly 
withhold his indignation. Sancta simplicitas ! 

57. It is time that places the thinker in the right 
light; it is necessary that a sufficient length of time 
elapse before the works of a great man can reach 
those that are actually fit to judge of them; but when 
they have once reached this stage, they are safe 
against all oblivion. 

But I do not think that a great man feels flattered 
at the admiration that the multitude have for him or 
his works ; on the contrary, knowing that they were 
unfit to pass a reliable opinion on them in the begin- 
ning, and they therefore neglected them both, he feels 
that as soon as the influence could be brought to bear 
on the multitude again, they would also again reject 
him and his works. A political man I would hardly 
want to be ; his situation, as relates to honor, is sub- 
ject to a change of probably the entire opposite with- 
in almost a single day. 

58. As it is the physical force that prevails directly, 
so does the greatest man more or less hesitate in 
advancing views that are contrary to the general 
opinion, as the greatest orator will more or less trem- 
ble at first when addressing a multitude, for at the 
moment the consciousness of his superiority over 
them is overawed by the physical force that he sees 
before him. 



150 



A TREATISE ON MAN. 



59. The greatest satisfaction and consolation that a 
man can find is when he withdraws himself from the 
intercourse of the world into his own study, there to 
converse with men of an entirely different character 
from that of the man of the world, for to associate, 
either in person or by reading his works, with a man 
of genius, is a satisfaction that not the friendship of 
all the kings of Europe can equal. The advice, there- 
fore, that the Earl of Eutland gave to a young man 
was correct, namely, that it was better to walk a 
hundred miles to be able to converse with a wise man 
than it was to walk five miles to see a handsome city, 
for as our person suffers from bad physical surround- 
ings, so does our intellect gain by being trained by 
one who is as wise or wiser than ourselves. Some 
philosopher says that the character of a man is 
known by the company that he keeps, so is like 
drawn by like ; therefore a Genius will no more asso- 
ciate with a simpleton than Aristides would with the 
Athenian populace. The books on a man's shelves 
bespeak his character as a man of thought. 

If a man of thought finds that he is being rejected, 
he at least has the consolation of knowing, as Scho- 
penhauer says, that there are others who have lived 
before him who had shared the same fate, and with 
whom he can exchange his own thoughts, for they 
still speak to him through their works ; and that the 
future also will bring forth men to whom he is now 
addressing himself. 



60. There is a class of writers who say a great many 
wise things, but one notices, as soon as one criticises 
a little, that there is no sufficient concatenation oi 
thoughts. In other words, although there is a frame 



THE INTELLECT. 151 

to give the work an appearance, yet there is no struc- 
ture to inhabit. But the greatest want in such works 
is the foundation ; a few good building-stones are not 
sufficient for a temple that is to stand for ages ; they 
must be properly hewn, laid and cemented. A true 
Genius has a complete structure of mental work that 
he carries around in his head. Occasional wise and 
witty sayings are enough to impose on a reader or a 
king who is as shallow as his author ; but a wise pos- 
terity gives them no shelter. 

61. The philosopher, in writing down his thoughts, 
by no means places before his reader everything that 
he himself thinks j a great many thoughts that stand 
in connection with his theory and that tend to the 
ripening of his own judgment, the reader never sees. 
The reader is supposed to do some thinking for him- 
self; the writer lays it before him in general terms 
only. This is what makes it often difficult for the 
reader to come to the same conclusion as the writer. 
Besides, the different material out of which he formed 
his judgment, remains unknown to the reader. If 
writers could always make themselves understood, 
there would not be so much discrepancy in philoso- 
phy, for it is chiefly from vagueness and a lack of 
talent for description and relation that make writers 
disagree. 

62. The most of our actions have only a trifling re- 
sult, and do not compensate the exertion both of the 
body and mind that is employed, and would not, 
therefore, be sufficient to raise man above the brute 
creation. It is only that at times there are actions, 
which probably do not even cost as much energy and 



152 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

exertion of the mind as the trifling ones do, that make 
up the difference for the smaller ones, and that are 
the only ones that point out man as being superior to 
the lower animal. It is as easy for a Genius to pro- 
duce a thought that will live forever, as it is for a fool 
to invent a windmill, and, it might be added, a great 
deal easier. 

63. The different inventions for practical uses are 
not the result of reasoning so much as they are the re- 
sult of mere instinct, which acts at the moment that 
the necessity for the thing invented arises ; and inas- 
much, as it depends upon the need of the thing, there 
would be no invention from mere abstract reasoning ; 
the necessity actually suggests the manner in which 
to go about to invent it. 

64. In the same manner as nature placed the brain 
at the top of the body, to be served by the lower 
parts, so has she placed the intellect at the most 
prominent point, to be served by the animal parts of 
the rest of mankind. 

65. When I see that men of very limited intelli- 
gence, sometimes not even the ordinary intelligence, 
succeed in their worldly affairs, whilst those of 
superior intelligence are unfortunate in whatever 
they undertake, I can only be convinced that the for- 
mer are only animals following the dictates of their 
natural instinct, which requires them to succeed for 
want of sufficient intelligence to otherwise contend 
against those of a superior judgment; whilst the lat- 
ter are unfortunate simply because they have intelli- 
gence sufficient to embark in something else, and can 



THE INTELLECT. 153 

thus contend with their fellow men in their struggle 
for existence. It is undoubtedly true that there is a 
certain intelligence, which, when added to the origin- 
al instinct, leads a man on from one fortunate under- 
taking to another; such a man is practically wise. 

66. In making an undertaking, the dictation of the 
moment is relied upon with most men; there is no 
previous study of the intended pursuit, nor any delib- 
eration of what its true result may be. With the 
people in general the word ft Intellect" has almost no 
definition at all, and the word u Intelligence v but a 
limited definition ; they " do not think with the un- 
derstanding, but with the ears," says Apulejus; they 
have no plan of life laid out which is to serve as a 
guide in the future, nor are they at all within the 
control of reason when the senses dictate, although a 
resolution with them may have been taken with the 
strongest ties of an obligation. 

67. Nature seems to have avoided with great care 
of bestowing any more of intelligence on mankind in 
general than was necessary to keep them floating only 
a little above the surface of that vast ocean in which 
all other beings also exist. 

68. Outside of the field of experience, the intellect 
can comprehend nothing, for how can the human mind 
conceive that which has never come within its own 
practice, or that is entirely heterogeneous to the mind 
itself? To say that the intellect could demonstrate a 
God, or the immortality of the soul, would be to main- 
tain that it was supernatural in its compreheusion ? 
since only that is natural which comes under the laws 



154 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

of nature as they appear to man; but God and the 
soul are supernatural objects, hence the mind cannot 
grasp them. God and the immortality of the soul 
with the intellect are only ideas, the former represent- 
ing the power and good, and the latter the imperish- 
able nature of all beings ; this is consistent, as being 
comprehensible to the intellect, since it experiences 
these attributes itself. 

69. Scepticism has the great advantage of setting a 
boundary to the human intellect ; we need this theory 
as well to set a boundary to our researches, as we 
need a boundary to our country to set a limit to our 
territorial rights as citizens of a particular nation. 
The whole world does not belong to the United 
States; neither does the original cause of the Uni- 
verse belong to the intellect. 

70. The world, so far as the individual is concerned, 
is only that which relates to himself ; outside of his 
own existence there is no world. The individual 
judges of everything exterior to himself only so far as 
it affects himself, or, if the act be in regard to another 
individual, how far it would affect himself if he were 
in the other's place. If the individual himself judg- 
ing be not considered, there is no world, and the word 
has no meaning. 

71. A man's life is as much of a delusion to him 
after he has arrived at maturity as it was when he 
was but ten years of age. He never matures, for in the 
proportion that he gains, he loses, and his benefit is 
at one time no greater than at another. If a man has 
now thrown aside the many childish acts that sur- 



THE INTELLECT. 155 

rounded liis infancy, he has assumed others that 
equally expose him as the fool. Maturity has the sex- 
ual passion to contend with, which irresistably forces 
him to commit those errors that the child is free from, 
and also the love of gain and all the worldly posses- 
sions and pleasures now fill his head. 

Our whole life is surrounded by a cloud, through 
which our eye cannot penetrate ; this is evident from 
the fact that man hopes. Man is continually striving 
to obtain that which he probably never will obtain ; 
and he is thus being continually led around in the 
dark ; he is like a ship in a dense fog, not knowing at 
what moment some other vessel or rock may com- 
pletely annihilate him, and ignorant of both latitude 
and longitude that he may be in. 

72. The intellect is unchangeable; the most that 
can be done with it, is to improve it, but in any wise 
to remodel it, is impossible. This is the reason why 
men may become learned from reading, but all the 
books that have ever been written can never make 
them the more intellectual than they were before. 
But let a man have the intellect of a Genius, and 
though he be illiterate, it will show itself. Yet to be 
a philosopher requires, as a means of reasoning logic- 
ally, that the mind be aided and guided by erudition, 
because the mind, without training, is crude ; in such 
a case thoughts wander about without regularity. 

73. It is the continual exercise of the intellect in 
matters where thought is required, that develops the 
brain ; it is susceptible of improvement from exercise 
the same as the body. For this reason all wise peda- 
gogues advise the careful study of the Greek and 



156 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

Latin classics. If man had not from the beginning 
continually exercised his brain, he would not be as far 
advanced as he is. 

But too much training of the brain has the same 
effect on it as too much training of the body has on 
it; it will cause it to become blunt and prevent its 
natural vigor that might otherwise act ; from too 
much straining, it becomes lame and crippled. If 
there be in the individual a superior intellect, it will, 
generally speaking, lay out its own course, though it 
will not entirely neglect a guide. No man ever exist- 
ed that did not to a more or less extent require the 
assistance of his fellow men. Especially since man is 
born without ideas, his knowledge must be acquired 
from association with his fellow men, and experience 
in general. 

74, Time is perceivable only by the change of 
things ; it is something that the mind cannot com- 
prehend in itself, but it is only by virtue of some- 
thing else that we are at all aware of it— change. 
The change from youth to old age in man is evidence 
that a certain number of years have passed away; so 
in the growth or deterioration of everything, as, also, 
the change of position of the hands of the clock. 
Hence to an individual that has no intellect, to per- 
ceive this change in all things, there is no such thing 
as time. Kant undoubtedly most satisfactorily dis- 
posed of the problem of time and space, two of the 
greatest stumbling-blocks of the human intellect, by 
calling them mere forms of our knowledge of things. 

75. It is only he who does a benefit to the world, 
that is entitled to honor. Man may do a great many 



THE INTELLECT. 157 

acts that may be beneficial to himself, yet they will 
not be praiseworthy unless they also be beneficial to 
others. Wherever we lend direct assistance to na- 
ture in the procreation or preservation of her different 
species, there our actions and conduct are praise- 
worthy, either as mere animals or as intellectual 
beings, because we then fulfill the highest duty that 
can be enjoined on us. Men whose actions all tend to 
their own benefit, discarding and ignoring the rest of 
the world in their struggles against suffering and 
misery, are objects of our highest contempt ; where- 
as he who yields and suffers everything for the bene- 
fit of others, receives our highest veneration. 

Men of mere learning are entitled to no praise or 
honor; they spend their whole lifetime in accumulating 
learning from books or otherwise, which is all intend- 
ed for their own comfort and convenience, but do not 
possess genius to assist the rest of mankind ; they re- 
main in the same condition as when they came into 
the world. A man therefore who writes volume upon 
volume of thoughts that he has derived from others is 
no Genius, he is a borrower, not a lender. The Genius 
is called such because he begets (gignere ), and thereby 
assists nature in her begetting and increasing. 

76. The "Kritik der reinen Vernunft ", as Kant 
himself says, serves as a benefit negative ; it is like 
a physician, who cannot improve or prolong life, but 
may, in some cases at least, serve in preventing mal- 
adies. The "Kritik" has the great benefit of prevent- 
ing mankind from falling into those great errors of 
the mind that continually beset it. Schopenhauer 
recommends the "Kritik"by saying that it is instruc- 
tive even there where the author himself errs. It is 



158 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

doubtless, as lie says, the most original production of 
the human intellect that has ever appeared. 

77. As soon as the mind perceives anything, it makes 
an impression on the memory. After the object of 
perception has been deposited with the memory, the in- 
tellect discharges itself from further acting on it until 
it has again been called upon by recollection, as this 
word very properly defines it. It would be impossible 
for the intellect to be engaged on present objects and 
at the same time on all objects that have occurred in 
the past. The memory may be considered a store-house 
for wares for future requisition ; though most of them 
will gradually disappear without one's knowing what 
has become of them, to make room for others. 

78. According to Kant, who seems to have believed 
that there were other planets besides our own inhabit- 
ed, the greater the distance away such planets would 
be from the sun, the greater would be the intellectual 
endowment of its inhabitants. If it were true that 
God had sought out man, among all his creations, to 
make him a special object of his grace and favor, other 
planets where better material could be found, would 
be highly necessary. 

79. In youth the intellectual part is the more im- 
portant ; it is not so great a matter whether the char- 
acter be entirely unblemished or not. If the intelli- 
gence be sufficient, the individual can always very 
easily obtain means of subsistence, and, as it is, if, in 
addition, he possess considerable forwardness, even 
get a good standing among his fellow men. A little 
inclination to knavery in youth is even relished by 



THE INTELLECT. 159 

most people ; especially the women regard it with ad- 
miration. 

But in old age, the moral character is of the greater 
importance. Even though a man be otherwise a fool, 
from a great number of years of experience, nature has 
given him a store of practical knowledge for the lack 
of even ordinary intelligence ; and as evidence that he 
has undergone more or less experience, his gray 
head bears witness for him. Every man should be 
very thoughtful of what appearance his moral charac- 
ter will have after he has left behind him fifty or more 
years ; his gray hair will then be the greater disgrace 
to him if his character be not good, for we feel that if 
he has not established a moral character by that time, 
he will never have any, that his nature from the be- 
ginning must have been corrupt. But if a man can 
boast in his old age, that in the past years there is 
nothing that can blemish his character, excepting the 
little faults to which every man is subject, his position 
is an enviable one. 

80. He had noticed that even there where he sup- 
posed he was master of the situation, he had, at times, 
been put to right and corrected by those who were 
supposed to stand entirely under him on the particular 
subject at point. 

81. The animal parts always being greater than 
those of the intellect, the Genius, where he is personal- 
ly known, is not honored in proportion to his greatness; 
but at a distance, where his animal propensities are not 
seen, the prophet receives more than his due. This is 
treating him unjustly; in the former case he will be 



160 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

placed too low, and in the second case he will be 
placed too high. 

82. It is very noticeable that where civilization is at 
its highest, there money is scarce ; and where money 
is plentiful, there civilization is limited. It is with 
localities as it is with individuals, namely, where the 
intellect is, there the dollar is wanting, and where the 
dollar is, there the intellect is wanting. 

83. Men are like plants, the more inferior they are, 
the better they prosper. The weeds ( of men and 
plants ) will prosper in soil where the majestic Tree 
(the Genius) will perish. 

84. The man of self-denial receives the admiration 
of the world on the same principle as the weeping 
willow is admired, namely, both seek life to the extent 
that nature wants them both to live, but both, at the 
same time, the one consciously, the other unconscious- 
ly, seek a downward course, that leading .to death. 

85. Pure thought is such a stranger in the world, 
that if he wants to exist at all, he is compelled to un- 
dergo misfortunes that make it appear that his exist- 
ence is actually a sin or a curse; that he is to take 
every insult and offense that the common son of nature 
chooses to give him, for no other reason than because 
he exists at all. Therefore a little practice mingled 
with theory is a wise institution, since it enables a 
man of genius to enjoy at least some of the employ- 
ments of the world, and makes him more fit to contend 
with the rest of mankind. 



THE INTELLECT. 161 

86. The talk of most men means nothing; they sim- 
ply delight in hearing their own noise. 

87. How reliable can an intellect be called that will 
at one time approve an act that it will disapprove 
probably before twenty-four hours have elapsed, and 
vice versa, as the human intellect daily does. 

88. Xature has provided proper means for man to 
live as a civilized being, but it requires the intellect to 
discover them; for this reason it was given him. 

89. The begetting we see everywhere, the intellectu- 
al and moral nowhere. 

90. If it were not the custom and fashion, men 
would not seek honor and riches; intellectuality cer- 
tainly does not encourage them. 

91. When he considered what the human race is 
intellectually and morally, he at times even rejoiced at 
being called eccentric and peculiar — merely to be an 
exception to the general rule of mortals. 

92. Take a large gathering of people, such as a 
picnic, for instance, or any other social gathering, 
and observe them at a distance, and see whether they 
do not surpass every other species of animal in noise, 
disorder, unruly and unbridled conduct. The little 
of mind that such people possess, actually makes 
them more of a disgrace, morally speaking, than 
the lower animal is, which does not possess as much. 

93. The thinking of most people consists of nothing 
but talking, and as this is generally of no use to an- 
il 



162 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

other, they will, if one is willing to have the patience 
to listen to them, compensate one for it by inviting 
him to their house to partake of a fine meal or enter- 
tainment. And, generally, the invited one is as will- 
ing to accept, as the other is to invite. 

94. The ordinary man does not regulate his conduct 
according to the rules of wisdom ; his guide is custom 
and fashion, his knowledge goes no farther than see- 
ing and hearing what others do; he is born as an 
animal, he lives like an animal, and he dies like an 
animal ; it is only the laws of the state that force any- 
thing like civilization out of him. 

95. The first impression is generally the nearest to 
correctness, as relates to a man's intellect or love ; it 
is true also of the inventions and improvements of 
articles of daily use. Although modifications may be 
added to the original, yet it generally shows that a 
man will resort to the first plan which had not yet be- 
come encumbered with additional parts resulting from 
subsequent planning, in the same manner as a man will 
always recall the thoughts of his first love, because 
these took place when they were yet chaste and inno- 
cent. 

96. He was one of those men that the world had no 
use for ; his intellectual and moral qualities were such 
as reminded it of its lowness. 

97. Small matters generally annoy the mind more 
than great matters do, because we feel the effect of 
the former more than we do that of the latter, for the 
reason that it is more immediate ; the effect of a great 



THE INTELLECT. 163 

matter generally lies in the future, and it can there- 
fore be somewhat expected, that it will never occur. 

98. He had so little faith in human planning that 
he no longer promised either himself or any one else 
anything. 

99. The reason why things appear horrible and 
threatening to us when we awake during the night or 
in the morning, is because the mind has not yet been 
able to collect the true state of facts of our existence? 
and, it probably being dark and no one near us who 
is awake, we feel as if we were left alone to our fate. 

100. The man of business says of a new undertak- 
ing, Where is my profit ? Does the ordinary reader, 
when he reads a book, inquire how his mind is prof- 
ited by it ? Nothing should be pursued in life unless 
it result in some gain or profit, either material, 
physical, moral or intellectual. Our promenades, our 
amusements, even what we call luxuries, should not 
be resorted to unless there be some advantage. 

101. The philosopher does not receive the admira- 
tion of the vulgar as the man of mere talent does, 
because they cannot comprehend matters of genius as 
they can matters of mere talent. But for that very 
reason, neither is he subject to their insults and vitu- 
peration as the latter is, for if they cannot reach him, 
neither can they lay their hands on him. 

102. Even in the greatest thinker, there is always 
something to be found that is imperfect or wanting ; 
it is the same with the moral character and the 



164 A TREATISE ON HAN. 

physical appearance; otherwise the world would be 
monotonous. It is the general impression that the 
intellect, or anything else, makes that is to be taken 
as the correct means of judging of a man — the minor 
parts must be overlooked. The enemies of a great 
man generally seek to ignore his general character, 
intellectually or morally, and seek out the minor parts 
where his intellect or character fails, to be able to 
lower him. 

103. Is it not true that the Genius grasps more or 
less slower than the common mind ? He certainly does 
in practical affairs, because, being continually engaged 
on theoretical subjects, he must first discharge himself 
of these to be able to pass over into the practical ones ; 
besides, he reasons much more fundamentally, and 
therefore collects his principles slower. 

104. Without the Genius, the Nation is nothing, 
although the Genius is everything without the Nation. 

105. The Genius is better in giving advice to others 
than he is to give advice to himself, in the daily 
affairs — his intellect is for the world, not for himself. 

106. Even if a man do succeed in his plans, how 
different is it not in the end from what it was in the 
beginning of his undertaking; sometimes there is 
hardly a resemblance between the two. 

107. It is all an illusion : there was no birth, there 
is no life, there will be no death ; the past, the present 
and the future are all one existence, if it can be called 
an existence at all. 



BOOK III. 



MAN AS A MORAL BEING. 



CHAPTER I. 



HIS OBJECT AS MAN. 

1. Christ is morality itself. In him is not only all 
that is good, but also all that is great; and he is 
therefore a genuine type of what a man ought to be — 
probably the greatest model of human goodness and 
greatness that nature has yet created in the shape of 
a human being, whatever his faults as a man may be, 
for they are necessary constituents of the clay of 
which we are all formed. He was a fanatic, in a cer- 
tain sense, as all founders of a religion are, but his 
fanaticism had a good object. 

When we look at the high (the highest) moral char- 
acter that Christ possessed, when compared to that 
that mankind in general possess, it is not astonishing 
that he should have assumed a somewhat divine mis- 
sion ; his calling was such as no man had yet assum- 
ed, and he could therefore very well suppose that his 
career among his fellow men was that of a superior; 
it is not at all remarkable that he should have felt 
that his authority was from heaven, because there was 
no authority here on earth that was either superior or 
equal enough to confer it upon him. The Old Testa- 
ment had always taught a deliverer for the Jews, and 
it was therefore very consistent for Christ to assume 
that character — as being the most entitled to it— his 
sole object being, leaving out his religion, to deliver 
mankind from vice and corruption; and it is therefore 
also that no religion could have accepted a more ap- 

1G7 



168 A TREATISE ON" MAN. 

propriate and fit individual for its founder. Kings 
impersonate the state, so Christ could as consistently 
impersonate the good (God). 

2. Christ is morality according to the spirit ; Moses 
is law according to the letter. The former is a savior, 
the latter is an avenger. The whole aim and object 
of the system of Christ's morality is the salvation of 
the individual, always considering that man is born 
with weaknesses and vices, and that there is nothing 
in the individual himself to enable him to avoid his 
becoming the possessor of them ; that the most that 
can be done is to forgive him for what he has done in 
the past, and point out a proper course for the future, 
so that his acts of the past will not be repeated. 
Christ herein shows himself to be a moral teacher. 
Moses also points out a course of life, but if it be not 
followed, he punishes and revenges without mercy; 
he is nothing but a judge. Christ knew the human 
heart, Moses did not ; the former judges from experi- 
ence, the most correct and reliable source of know- 
ledge ; the latter judges from abstract reasoning, as 
a legislator. 

3. Christ was a moral Genius ; born to teach man- 
kind, not from the cathedra nor from the pulpit, but 
from the mount, in the street and in the woods, in 
fact, wherever he found them, whether it were in the 
brothel or in the temple. Continually observant of the 
rule that we are born equal in a state of nature, and 
therefore we should bear one another's faults even to 
a degree that is almost impossible, and entirely im- 
possible for most men, it gives him a character that 
has the appearance of being more than natural. His 









HIS OBJECT AS MAN. 169 

teachings are something like the discourses of Epic- 
tetus, at the time spoken to a comparatively small 
audience, with some exceptions, and handed down to 
us by one or more of his audience. 

It was a natural dictation in him to instruct and 
reform; he was born for nothing else, and would 
therefore have succeeded at nothing else. 

4. To reach nature's aim and object, namely, to 
keep every species of animal and every other creature 
in existence, it is necessary to have laws that are in- 
evitable. Every grade that man has assumed up to 
his present high state, was but a means whereby na- 
ture preserves him in that condition. When nature 
creates a man like Plato or Kant, there is undoubtedly 
natural wisdom in it; they have their functions to 
perform in this world as well as the ordinary man, 
whose object it is to propagate; the latter produces 
men, and the former instruct them; but inasmuch as 
only a few will answer for the latter vocation, nature 
does in fact create but very few. If the men of gen- 
ius had not this object, the inevitability of nature's 
laws would direct them to other employment; the 
career of a man's life is not determined by himself, 
but by the particular nature that is in him. There- 
fore the intellect was not given to man for the sake 
of reaching fame; this is only another means by 
which nature reaches her aim ; it is not an object; it 
is a consequence of this intellect, given as a compen- 
sation and reward for services that are for the benefit 
of all mankind, although the truly wise man spurns 
it, because he feels that such a compensation is for 
mediocre minds. 



170 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

5. As the wise man pursues his course according to 
his particular character, so does the fool and block- 
head pursue his course according to his particular 
character ; they both follow their natural inclinations. 
But this will by no means compel a toleration of the 
foolish and improper conduct of people of no under- 
standing, in an advanced and enlightened age. If the 
fool is necessarily created by nature to perform his 
functions as an animal, and for which only he is here, 
the Genius is as necessarily created to check and re- 
strain him and guide him in his moral course. When 
Zeno was correcting his slave for stealing, the slave 
said, "It was fated that I should steal," to which Zeno 
answered, "Yes, and that you should be beaten." 
Whenever nature creates what to the intellect appears 
to be a fault in one being, she in another being creates 
a power to counteract it. A criminal is as much the 
ingenious work of nature as the highest moralist ; the 
one is a necessity for the existence of the other, for 
were the one not created, there would be no need of 
the other. 

6. So great is the force of the laws of nature, that 
she absorbs the whole infinite number of thoughts of 
the greatest thinker merely to the aim of the existence 
of man as a civilized being. Not one moment's time is 
given us to meditate for the sake of our own amuse- 
ment; the whole pure reasoning of Kant and the phi- 
losophical speculations of Plato are as much necessary 
thinking for man in his civilized state, as the thinking 
where he will get his next food, is for the common man; 
the one is mediate, the other immediate. 

7. All writers agree that it is only the wise and 
learned man that clearly sees the divinity of God; 



HIS OBJECT AS MAN. 171 

that the vulgar have no idea or conception of hiin, and 
therefore need to be taught and instructed by the 
former. Thus it follows, that what the preceptor be- 
lieves to be true, is really true. It is without doubt 
true that the wise man's ideas, in the sense of intellect- 
uality, are superior to those of the vulgar ; but that he 
alone is to see the attributes of God himself, is noth- 
ing but conceit. 

Moses knew well the purpose for which nature had 
created him, namely, to instruct his people. If there 
be a divinity, and it must be comprehended to save 
the human soul, all mankind undoubtedly have a fac- 
ulty to comprehend it, otherwise all mankind but the 
extremely few that have been specially gifted, are lost. 
The wise man alone is moral, but from a natural 
standpoint ; as all things appear in the universe, he 
is not a preference over the rest of mankind. The 
wise man is better capable of seeing the salutary 
effects of morality than the ordinary man, but this 
all refers only to the intercourse of mankind in this 
world as civilized beings, and beyond that there is no 
superiority. 

8. From this it is evident, that the superiority of the 
wise man is given him to instruct, to civilize and keep 
civilized the human family; and that all those who 
are not here for ttm^ purpose, are not, in the strictest 
sense, men. 

9. The German thinker is theoretical ; the French 
thinker is semi-theoretical and semi -practical; the 
English thinker is practical; those of the other na- 
tions compare better with the French. The greatness 
)f the German thinker being of the highest order, he 



172 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

will necessarily produce but few; but, so that all 
things work well and there be no preference, on the 
whole, the other nations will produce so many more of 
their respective kinds. 

10. Every nation produces thinkers, especially the 
political ones, to suit the needs of its people, to a 
greater or less extent, although a Genius, strictly 
speaking, is born for all mankind. If it could be his- 
torically ascertained, it would be seen that every 
thinker who existed, existed during his time because 
at that time he was needed as such, and therefore 
performed his part as necessarily as the soldier who 
fought the battles of his time. 

11. The statesman's works and good deeds are en- 
joyed immediately after they have been performed, 
but after his death there is nothing left of his great- 
ness but the testimony of history ; especially is this 
true of the military man. It is with the statesman 
and general as it is with everything that is more or 
less superficial; their works resulted from very little 
thinking, with the military man sometimes no think- 
ing at all; they rise chiefly from the spur of the 
moment, and then even influenced by their natural 
prejudice or religious bias. Such men are therefore 
confined to their own country and their own age. But 
to be a genuine Genius, requires the whole world as a 
subject for study; and a statesman who makes the 
welfare of mankind his study, as Frederick the Great 
and others have done, is a Genius. 

12. There is one class of men, and that unfortu- 
nately has always been in the majority, that are 



HIS OBJECT AS MAN. 173 

neither capable of begetting a great thought nor of 
comprehending and availing themselves of it when it 
is begotten. This class, it will often be noticed, make 
remarks, the truth of which is sublime ; having heard 
or read them, they now use them to the great admira- 
tion of the hearer. Divines are a great imposition in 
this respect; divinity itself being so sublime, any 
remark on it with eloquence causes admiration. 

Another class of men, who are more limited, com- 
prehend great thoughts, but are not able themselves 
to be the authors of great works. To the extent that 
education can have influence on the mind and char- 
acter, such men are benefited, though this can never 
be very great, for a mind is influenced by exterior 
objects and thoughts only so far as it is by nature 
related to them. Yet such men may be good in- 
structors. 

The last, the greatest, have always been the fewest. 
In a whole century, all the fingers of probably only 
one hand are not necessary to count them by. 

The first mentioned have their material blessings, 
the second material blessings and honor divided, the 
third material bitterness, but eventually, everlasting 
honor, approaching that of divinity. 



CHAPTER II. 



MAN IS BY NATURE BASE. 

1. That mankind are originally base, is clearly seen 
from the fact that when a base proposition is made to 
an individual, he is almost always inclined to accept 
it; if it be not accepted, it is because of the fear of 
the law or the being ejected from the society of his 
fellow men. It is only the moralist who will reject a 
base proposition voluntarily for the very reason that 
it is base. 

Many men will scorn a vile proposition, but this is 
done only to impose on the credulity of mankind; 
give such men sufficient scope to escape being judged 
by their fellow men, and then see the result. 

There is a class of men, but very few^ who act hon- 
estly, in a general sense, in their dealings; they have 
found from experience that such a course is advanta- 
geous, for it enriches their purse and gives them an 
honorable standing amongst their fellow men. Be- 
sides, they have a certain feeling of humanity for 
their fellow beings, and know that as they would not 
want to be impo&ed upon, so their fellow beings also 
should not be imposed upon. 

2. It is especially another evidence of man's base- 
ness, that the greatest part of mankind will feel them 
selves flattered when it has been discovered that 
certain of their transactions were perpetrated with 
fraud and covin; they are willing to let their char- 

174 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 175 

acter suffer for the benefit of their intelligence, in 
practicing their rogueries, providing they feel them- 
selves safe from the law. Some men act honestly 
from instinct, and therefore still stand on the same 
basis as the lower animal, a dog, for instance, that 
will not steal his master's meat. 

3. The very fact that man relies so much on secrecy, 
and that, in order to be able to deal with his fellow 
men, it is necessary, is conclusive that he or the one he 
is dealing with is not moral, because morality is of 
itself sufficient not to require that anything be hidden. 
But the truth is, that man requires something of de- 
ception, to take his opponent unawares. Furthermore, 
as the degree of morality decreases in a certain indi- 
vidual, the degree of secrecy and deception increases, 
and the greater degree of morality decreases the degree 
of secrecy. All this is based upon the reasoning in 
nature, that all these faculties are a necessity to the 
respective individual in his struggle for existence as 
an animal. 

4. Mankind are so incapable as to their own salva- 
tion, that they always have to depend upon a savior 
or redeemer ; this is very noticeable in the fact that 
people are continually invoking God to save them 
from the perdition into which they have voluntarily 
thrown themselves, or, else, rely upon a Christ to 
make intercession for them. 

Now, a good man is the savior of his own soul, in 
the same manner as the bad man is the destroyer of 
his. It is instinctive consciousness that makes man 
feel that there is more bad than good in him, and 
therefore he feels the necessity of one that is greater 



176 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

and better than himself to save him. Christ knew 
that the world was too corrupt to save itself, and 
therefore taught that he was necessary to be sent to 
save it. 

5. To know a man's inward character, his original 
nature, is an impossibility. It is only by outward 
actions that his character can at all be judged ; but 
how much of his real character can be known from his 
acts, when we consider that it is the nature of all 
animals to act by deception, and that all their doings 
are merely to impose upon the rest of mankind ? 

6. Prostitution seems to be in order with a great 
part of mankind. Even if it be true that morality has 
some fine beings to show up, it is still mortifying to 
see that the majority of the human family do not 
blush at being willing, probably not always exterior- 
ly, but inwardly, to erase that little chastity from the 
records of mankind that is in the world. It is humil- 
iating to a man of high morality that the desire too 
exists in him ; but when it comes, it comes with an ab- 
horrence to his soul. Not so is it with the man of the 
world ; he bids it welcome, and even solicits its com- 
ing. With his money he enters into a bargain, the 
carrying out of which regards the other sex as but 
instruments of satisfying man's sin. 

7. From practice and inheritance, man's concupis- 
cence has grown so great, that he is compelled to re- 
sort to all kinds of means, natural or unnatural, to sat- 
isfy it : he uses violence on the other sex, which can 
probably be said also of a few of the lower animals; 
the other sex have to do with men when not in a con. 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 177 

dition to procreate, which I do not know of any other 
animal; he satisfies his desires without the aid of the 
other sex, which evil too can be said, I believe, of the 
ape; he has venereal diseases, and he invents various 
and different means of preventing birth. Such a de- 
praved and distorted nature must be the result of a 
course of existence that is certainly not evident to 
man's eyes in the rest of creation. As certain as it is 
that it is physical, so certain it is that it is not moral. 

8 It is the moral part of man that is not in order 
according to the direct laws of nature; morality is 
apparently against the laws of nature; it is impos- 
sible to find a man that is moral in the strictest 
sense.* 

The world is beset with traps and snares to prevent 
man from carrying out what would be to the philoso- 
pher and genius the greatest object that man could 
boast of— a perfect moral being. We have no sooner 
taken a vow of abstinence than the next object that 
meets our eyes or ears tempts us to break it. 

The correct way to regard one's self is as Christ re- 
garded man, namely, as being beset with sins and 
evils on all sides, and he should therefore always be 
on his guard; there will then be no disappointment 
when disgrace does come. 

9. If we want to see how very little genuine morali- 
ty there is or has been in the world, we have only to 
compare the number of moralists that may exist or 
have existed with the millions upon millions of human 

* Luke xviii : 19, 20, 
12 



178 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

beings that exist and have existed, and then man's 
genuine morality dwindles into nothing. 

10. Hatred and love control man. It is as hard to 
give up an enemy as it is to give up a mistress. In 
these two passions man lowers himself. Whoever 
falls into either, for the time sacrifices that much of 
Ms dignity as a being of intellectuality and morality, 
whilst the absence of both of them presents something 
of the god-like. 

11. If man were man, the friendship that he would 
have for his fellow men would be all that would be 
necessary to secure peace and protection, and there- 
fore Christ taught that men should love one another, 
even so far as to extend to their enemies. But men, 
as it is, in all their dealings with one another, are at 
nothing but war, the one contending to get the advan- 
tage over the other. 

12. The general love and friendship of mankind 
for one another is so unreliable, that, in order to be 
sure and safe in obtaining the assistance and charity 
of one another, men form secret orders and societies, 
by which they mutually pledge to aid and assist one 
another in time of need. This is nothing but a self- 
love which extends only as far as the order itself, and 
no farther; every member seeking ouly to assist a 
fellow member, and this is only done because it is 
mutual. Besides, after the death of any member, if 
payment of any monies can be avoided, it is even done, 
such societies being like individuals, namely, they 
stand by one another as long as their co-operation is 
needed, but as soon as this is not to be had, the 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 179 

sooner the poor fellow member is disposed of, the 
better. 

13. Mankind possess enough virtue to keep them- 
selves out of the penitentiary and from the gallows, 
and but very little more, not to say anything of the 
hundreds of individuals that are annually convicted. 
If we were to closely scrutinize every man's conduct 
as it shows itself in his heart, not in his exterior, it 
would be found that there is not a single individual 
in the whole moral world who would not be subject to 
more or less criminal convictions of some kind or 
other. 

The moral institutions of man are merely in the 
ideal, having that before the eyes which should be, 
but which never is. That man in general possesses 
something originally moral, and that he is a god and 
not a thief, are arguments that well serve to sufficient- 
ly flatter the vanity of egotistic man, who is willing 
to pay the speaker of them liberally ; but when we 
look at the history of mankind, both in the past and 
the present, we find that, whilst creed after creed 
has changed, because its adherents lost faith in it, 
yet the necessity and the utility of a prison for the 
punishment of offenders have never been questioned. 
In other words, religions have been wiped out of ex- 
istence, and are continually changing, yet crime and 
immorality hold their head as high now as they did 
in the days of prosperous Babylon ; religions have 
been only a chimera, but vice a reality, because the 
blood of man is so. 

It is owing to the fact that man's morality has only 
been assumed since he has become intellectual, that 
the philosophers have been unable to find a reliable 



180 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

basis for it to rest on. Besides, how can it be expect 
ed that an animal can be a god? 

14. Man, through the whole course of his life, lives 
in a state of fear either as against famine, the laws of 
the state, the laws of nature, or as against the encroach- 
ments of his own fellow men, or of the lower animal. 

There is one continual dread of one superior power 
or other in every being from the time of his birth up 
to the time of his death, all worldly possessions not 
being able to put him a safer condition than if he lives 
a life of poverty. By this means man is tamed and 
the brutal nature that is in him bridled ; this is what 
civilizes him. 

Man might thus be said to be a civilized being 
against his own will. I do not believe that the average 
man, as you see him on the street, has the least desire 
to be a civilized being, unless it be some instinctive 
incitement ; morality has no such hold on man in his 
original nature. Morality and civilization are a struc- 
ture in regard to the laying of whose corner stone, the 
ordinary man is not to be questioned; the thinker lays 
it, and when the building is finished, the common man 
is to occupy the subordinate apartment intended for 
him, whether he will or not. The people themselves 
are never even interested as to whether the corner 
stone be rightly laid, whether it be able to support 
the burden or not; there is merely a blind supposition 
with them that it is all in order. 

15. It is not the moralist that lowers the human 
family ; he merely philosophizes on their moral traits; 
it is mankind themselves that place themselves in a 
position that makes it a duty in the moralist to de- 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 181 

nounce their character. Vice is something that requires 
no violence whatever; everyone who falls into it, does 
so, because he sought it, not that any one compelled 
him. Who makes a gambler, a pander, an adulterer, 
a thief, a usurer or a perjurer out any man, but him- 
self? who makes a harlot, a procuress, an adulteress, 
a kleptomaniac, a liar or a termagant out of any 
woman, but herself? 

How many of the human family can be said to be free 
from all of these greatest vices? who, at all, can be said 
to be free from the minor ones ? They are not guilty 
of them in secrecy, which would evince a certain shame; 
it is done openly, with a certain boast. Sin, in the 
sense of the world, has no meaning in the practicing 
of it, but in reminding another of it ; not yourself, who 
tells the lie, do you call a liar, but him who reminds 
you of it; hence you shout " crucify him." 

16. Even some of the moralists and saints, in their 
youth, led a fast and reckless life, such a hold the 
base principles of human nature had on them. These 
principles could only be conquered after the mind 
had deliberated on them, and found that they were 
actual evils. 

17. If man were by nature moral, what need would 
there be of a police, criminal code and a church ? Are 
they not established for the very reason that he is vile 
and base? All other animals steal to obtain a sub- 
sistence, why should not man ] for he too belongs to 
the animal kingdom. But inasmuch as he wants to 
be civilized, he feels the need of the command 4 -Thou 
shalt not steal," purposely to counteract his base 
nature. 



182 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

The command " Thou shalt live" is so great in hu- 
man nature as well as in all other animals, that the 
most men will obey it at the hazard of everything else. 

18. If man we*e a moral being by nature, his whole 
life would be so pure that he could not help but be 
recognized as such, for he would then follow his moral 
inclinations as palpably as he now follows his base 
inclinations. 

19. If every individual were to be punished and 
imprisoned for every offense that he commits against 
morality and the law of the land, our buildings would 
all have to be converted into jails, and there would be 
no one left to execute the process of the law 

20. The character of a man is surrounded and influ- 
enced by evil to such an extent, that when speaking 
well of one's character, we are always forced to remark 
further, using language beginning with " But. " 

21. Morality being a secondary nature with man, it is y 
in its results, as secondary as all his works; and when 
it is considered that he has only the short period of 
his life to teach and practice it, it is not difficult to see 
how it is that it is so limited. 

But the greatest imposition that man has made on 
himself, is that he believes that it is possible, at least 
in certain individuals, for him to be a perfectly just 
being. Man always has the highest before him as a 
model ; and, with his store-house of conceit, it is not 
difficult to see how it is that he believes himself equal 
to this model. 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 183 

22. There are innumerable men who take a delight 
in being inhuman, whose hearts, at certain times, actu- 
ally yearn after doing their fellow men an evil, or 
practicing on them or the lower animal a cruelty or 
barbarity that actually deprives them of the epithet 
of "moral" and "human." 

Sine-tenths of mankind take more delight and have 
more satisfaction in the suffering or misery of their 
fellow men or fellow animals than they have in their 
happiness or peaceful state ; in fact, the most men feel 
miserable at the prosperity or happiness of others, and 
will, if it can be done with impunity, even ruin and 
destroy this prosperity or happiness. LaEochefou- 
cauld says that in the misfortunes of even our best 
friends, there is always something that does not dis- 
please us. 

23. That man is a moral imposition and a burden to 
himself and all the rest of mankind, with the few ex- 
ceptions to whom his existence is either directly or 
indirectly of benefit, and that every other man except- 
ing these, would wish that he would go and hang 
himself, are two undeniable truths, verified by daily 
experience. The man that engages himself in his 
affairs alone, and in no wise interferes with those of 
others, has always been an object of praise; we speak 
of him as being no imposition, because he does not 
force his existence on his fellow men. But he that is 
continually intermeddling with the world, either with 
his tongue or otherwise, has always been an object of 
contempt. If non-interference and silence, like death, 
command respect, the opposite must follow, namely, 
that interference and life must cause disrespect. 



184 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

So far as man is a mere propagator for nature's 
sake, it is right to feel rejoiced at the birth of a hu- 
man being ; but so far as he is man, birth is an impo- 
sition on him, because it brings its burdens and vices. 
As long as he remains a child— mere animal— he him- 
self and those surrounding him, are delighted at his 
existence ; but as soon as he has grown up to reflect 
upon his position in the world, and the unnatural and 
artificial parts he is to play as relates to morality and 
the rest of mankind, he finds that it were better if he 
had not been born. 

24. The more a man approaches manhood, in its 
philosophical sense, the less he resorts to dishonest 
practices to obtain a subsistence; and the more he 
resembles the lower animal, the more he resorts to 
such practices. The former will never succeed finan- 
cially, for to succeed in this world is to be semi-honest 
and semi-dishonest; to succeed a man must have 
enough honesty to keep up his reputation among his 
fellow men, to be able to carry on his business, the 
rest is fraud. To become rich, one must make his 
temple a den of thieves, but if one wants to follow 
Christ, he must overturn his money-tables. No one 
who has succeeded in becoming extremely, or even 
moderately, rich was an entirely honest man ; hence 
the difficulty for such a man to enter the kingdom 
of heaven. 

All this arises from a fact deeply rooted in nature, 
namely, that man is dishonest and that he can not, 
even in spite of a particular moral calling and the 
moral injunctions that are laid on him, be actually 
indifferent as to riches and the worldly gains, because 
they tempt the animal nature that is in him. There 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 185 

are many men whose conscience is troubled at such a 
state of affairs, but still the remorse is not strong 
enough to control them so that they will throw their 
money-bags into the sea, or reject their standing 
among their fellow men; there is an inclination, more 
or less, in this direction, but it is the evil Genius, not 
Christ, that boasts of the victory. 

25. If man were by nature good, he would neces- 
sarily remain so, for what is natural, always retains its 
nature. It is only that which is invented, by the in- 
tellect, that is not permanent, and as the intellect 
always more or less changes, so will its object. What 
exists originally by nature, is common to all men, but 
morality is by no means common to all men ; if it were, 
there would be no need of endless disputes in regard 
to it. It would, in such a case, be as evident as any 
member of the body. Morality undoubtedly exists, 
but it exists only intellectually. 

26. Every individual has his character indelibly 
stamped in him; it is often so evident that it is legi- 
ble in his bodily appearance, especially in the eyes 
and mouth. It is this original natural law in him 
that superinduces all his actions and doings; in fact, all 
his actions and doings are simply the operation itself 
of this law; this is his very existence, and therefore, 
to say that the will is free, is to say that the individ- 
ual has in his control what nature herself necessarily 
requires as a means to preserve this very individual, 
or through him to propagate others. 

From this it follows, that every act of every being, 
no matter how intellectual he may be, is natural. 
There are different avenues through which nature 



186 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

produces her effects; we call that artificial and not 
natural, which is a result of the brain directly, but if 
we were to trace it to its original source, we would 
find that it is nature that does it ; that it took its rise 
there, and that we ourselves are only the instruments 
through which nature carries it into effect, and that, 
therefore, what we call immorality in man being more 
conducive to him as a being subject to these laws, he 
is by nature base. 

27. There are three classes of men that are different- 
ty affected by the will; the one is that highest class, 
whom we call Geniuses, in whom the will is partly to 
serve the animal and partly the man ; their acts are 
two-fold, firstly, as they relate to their own individu- 
ality, they are physical, secondly, as they relate to the 
rest of the world, they are intellectual, and therefore 
have an unnatural appearance; these are mundane 
gods. The second class are those who follow the dic- 
tates of the body more than they do those of the mind, 
but yet make the body submissive more or less to the 
mind; these might be called men. The third class are 
those who have no mind, and who are therefore entire- 
ly subject to the animal dictates; these are the human 
beasts. 

28. Were it not for the threats of the law, I find 
that I should have no sooner left my threshold, than 
the first man that I should meet, would deprive me of 
the contents of my purse, and, should I resist, the 
most men, to accomplish the act, would add my life 
to it. 

29. The natural dishonesty that I ascribe to man is 
very noticeable in children in their daily conduct of 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 187 

playing with one another, and in the manner in which 
they avoid their superiors in what is wrong. 

30. Man is always guarding against wrong and any 
means that may tempt him to do an immoral act. 
Good men always have a certain rule of moral con- 
duct , thus evincing their own knowledge that the pre- 
dominant principle in them is to do evil ; they feel that 
to he able to do good, there is some active means neces- 
sary, namely, to keep off the evil, but not that the good 
would follow as a matter of course, but, rather, that the 
evil would follow as a matter of course. So conscious 
is man of his own moral weakness, that he even pre- 
vents the mere disclosure of an act, which, if it were 
carried into effect, would be immoral. All improper 
conduct is rightly kept from the presence of women 
and children, because it is from their weakness that 
their character may suffer from it. 

31. The criminal does not think at the time that he 
commits the act, that it is criminal in itself; he is prob 
ably only conscious that it is against the law of the 
land; he feels that he is justified in committing the act 
because his natural inclinations are such, which, he 
feels, are stronger than the threats of future punish- 
ment. If he had never believed that in the sense of 
nature he was justified, he never would have commit 
ed the act. 

The daily cheats practiced by men of business are 
acts that seem at the time to themselves to be justifia- 
ble; their conduct is not criminal so far as it relates to 
these particular individuals. And what the judge 
condemns as guilt, the perpetrator always maintains he 
was justified in doing from natural principles; the 



188 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

former is justified in his condemnation because the 
laws make it imperative, the latter in his criminal act 
because his nature so dictated. The dishonest prac- 
tices of persons of a weaker intelligence are all based 
on this reasoning ; but here, as it is with women and 
children, punishment does not always follow, because 
the natural inclination was too clearly and evidently 
predominant over the intelligence, to prevent it. 

32. What we commonly call dishonesty is in every 
existence, whether animate or inanimate; it is an ab- 
solute necessity in the strife for existence ; in every 
being, could we only see its operation in every other 
existence as we can in man. What we call punish- 
ment in man, is doubtless the same as the resistance 
that every existence meets with, by which it is com- 
pelled to undergo a change in its existence. 

33. With man considered as an intellectual being, 
it is easier to be moral than it is to be immoral, be- 
cause here his uprightness of character is a result of 
the particular individuality that is in him; his moral 
acts are a necessary consequence of his nature. It is 
therefore as difficult for a truly moral man to do an 
immoral act, as it is for the immoral man to do a mor- 
al one when the temptation is to do an immoral one. 

34. The animal principle must first arise before the 
intellectual principle can establish itself; the latter 
must wait until the former chooses to give it a hear- 
ing, thus agreeing with the general tone of the world, 
namely, that the weak great and good must beg an 
existence from the powerful low and base, knowing 
well that if the former once gets a foothold, the latter 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 189 

will be completely powerless, the human intellect be- 
ing so great when it is allowed its proper freedom e 

35. Xature will allow self-denial only in such a man 
in whom it can be tolerated — that it will not interfere 
with his existence. To live is therefore the injunction 
that nature puts on all animals, and as the means for 
living can be obtained by man, as he now exists, only 
on such principles as morality can not sanction, as 
long as he remains an animal, and I see no hopes of 
his ceasing to be it, he will be a liar and a thief. 

36. To make man a moral being would require a 
complete transformation of the order of things, one 
that would be directly opposite to that of the present. 
The present affinity of flesh and blood of the human 
body with the rest of the world, has its origin and 
preservation in exterior substances and relations that 
man brands as vile and base, and until such a separa- 
tion and disconnection and freedom and independence 
from the rest of all substances in nature takes place, 
if such an order of things could be imagined, man 
will be subject to the same laws of nature as every 
other existence; there is no escape from this, and 
there is no need of escape, because it is intended that 
he should be what he is. 

37. If one wants to avoid being daily disappointed, 
know that in this world kindness is met with ingrati- 
tude, and rascality with kindness. How much soever 
we may conscientiously feel that it is one of our first 
duties to meet that with proper recognition which it is 
entitled to, yet this is doubtless one of the last 
things that men think of doing. For the present, at 



190 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

least, there is more honor reaped by those who are 
least entitled to it, and more dishonor by those who 
are most honorable. Therefore, if honor depended 
upon present advantages to be derived, there would 
be no inducement to be honorable. Democritus 
laughed at people who seek riches and honor, not 
only because such people, if they obtained them, de- 
rived no good from either, but also because he saw 
that they are almost inevitably bestowed upon those 
who least deserve them. 

38. Not to do another an injury is recommendable, 
and yet this is doing nothing, and therefore a man 
who is merely passive will not be rewarded. But 
a scoundrel who occasionally does do a good act, 
the world will applaud; he will receive more ad- 
miration than the man who is always doing good acts, 
doubtless going on the same principle as what Christ 
says of the sinner, namely, that when hk is saved, all 
heaven and earth rejoice, because there has that 
much been gained what was supposed to be lost. 

39. Good and great acts in the beginning meet with 
disapproval, rejection and contempt; and bad and 
vicious acts meet with approval and acceptance in the 
beginning; their beginnings are opposite, and so are 
their ends opposite, the good being eventually recog- 
nized, even by those who do not practice it, and the 
bad rejected, even by those who do practice it. As 
soon as I hear of a man who is disliked by the popu 
lace, I entertain a secret opinion that there is some- 
thing good or great in him ; and as soon as I hear of 
a favorite of the people, I begin to suspect him. 
Phocion felt this. 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 191 

Thus it might, without having further evidence, be 
laid down as a general maxim: What mankind at 
first accept, that you at first reject, and what man- 
kind at first reject, that you at first accept. 

Schopenhauer says that every being, and be it the 
Devil himself, represents his cause as resting on per- 
fect principles of reason and justice. People who 
deceive, think, at the time, that they are justified in 
their conduct, for they feel that they too have a right 
to present their case, howsoever egotistic and selfish 
their principles may be ; they therefore get their pres- 
ent standing; were they not allowed so much, they 
would not get a sufficient hold on civilization to be 
able to make their struggle for existence. 

Where such principles prevail with the majority of 
mankind, a redeemer appearing every generation 
could not check them, for his moral power, great and 
wonderful as it might appear in him as a human be- 
ing, would be nothing, for he has only a power bor- 
rowed and limited, whilst they have all of nature's 
laws to assist them in their struggles for self preser- 
vation and existence. 

40. Men vrill commit an unjust act or crime without 
having any other object in view than to commit it; as 
Pascal says, one can not infer that a man is telling 
the truth merely from the fact that he has no interest 
in the matter, because, as he says, men will lie merely 
to be lying. Many people of enormous wealth, mere- 
ly from their avarice to keep increasing it, even in old 
age when it can no longer be enjoyed, practice their 
unjust acts, sometimes actually to the extent of mak- 
ing old men, widows and orphans penniless ; and in 
certain cases where the victim in his honesty and in- 



192 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

tegrity disclosed the secrets of his affairs, and thereby 
laid himself bare to such a villain, the latter will 
pocket the ducats that he has thus unjustly gained 
with a smile in his countenance at his victory and the 
credulity of mankind. 

Shoplifting does not arise in one case out of ten 
from any pressure of need; it takes place simply be- 
cause the baseness of the human heart so dictated it; 
it is even an inward boast with many ladies that they 
had the shrewdness to accomplish it. 

41. Among the millions of human beings that exist, 
can there not, at the least, be a half hundred found 
who are actually moral ? 

42. You never demand of a man that he carry a 
load for which his shoulders are not strong enough; 
how then can you demand of him that he be so moral 
as never to commit a vice, when in fact you are 
aware from your own nature that such a thing is an 
impossibility ? 

43. X had what the most people have, namely, the 
fault of converting to himself what properly belonged 
co others. 

44. A peculiarly moral world in which those who act 
upright in their affairs with others, which causes them 
to practically fail, are said to be too honest 

45. There is nothing bad but that it has something 
good in it, and nothing good but that it has something 
bad in it, so necessary are both for the universal wel- 
fare. Man, no matter who he is, has at least so much 
satisfaction in knowing that he is of some use. 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 193 

46. The reason why certain writers so strongly in- 
veigh against a particular evil that was probably a 
trait of their own character, is because they see from 
their own experience that it was actually an evil ; and 
therefore warn others against also falling into it — 
probably the best warning there is. 

47. So moral are mankind that the pretty face of a 
whore can accomplish more with the majority of them 
than the finest Sermon on the Mount can. 

48. The reason why a man blushes or casts his eyes 
downward when sharply looked at, is because he be- 
lieves he is being held responsible for his bad acts ; in 
other words, he adjudges his own character to be a 
guilty one. 

49. How can it be expected that a man's friends 
should be reliable, when it is considered that he is not 
reliable to himself, not even in those undertakings that 
are his greatest favorites. 

50. The worst of all is that certain thoughts con- 
tinually remind even a noble soul of the beastly nature 
of its body. 

51. Blood is no tie of friendship. In all matters 
with relatives, treat them on strict principles of busi- 
ness; this is a tie that can be more depended on than 
the former. 

52. At the house of X, who was a single man, some- 
what gray, one could always find three of the Devil's 
favorite tools : a fast horse, a demijohn and a woman. 

13 



194: A TREATISE ON MAN. 

53. The human race is so given to lying that in a 
transaction where both parties are interested, the one 
mistrusting the veracity of the other, the corroboration 
of a third party not interested is required to give cred- 
ence to the statement of both of them. 

54. Probably there is no better example of the crue- 
lty of man to his fellow men, than when a prison keeper 
will punish beyond all principles of humanity a victim 
that the law has placed in a helpless state of self- 
defence, and there is therefore probably no man whom 
the law should so carefully watch and supervise as 
such a keeper; besides, it being a position rather un- 
worthy of a man of higher and nobler principles, the 
additional danger is that it may fall into the hands 
of a petty despot. 

55. He felt that there is no good will in the world. 
Whenever a thing is given or presented to him, be 
it never so insignificant, he always considers how dear 
lie may yet have to pay for it. 

56. With all the presumption of his individual worth 
to the world, A did not know that after his death, or 
a mere removal to a neighboring district, he would not 
be missed as much as he supposed he would. 

57 > He always maintained that his fellow men were 
little and unmanly; that they lacked the higher prin- 
ciple of fellow-ship as civilized beings, and therefore 
his independence of spirit has always kept him aloof 
from the good will, such as it is, of his fellow men. 
But even there where he did apply for a favor, be- 
cause it could very easily be granted without au injury 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 195 

or detriment, or there where humanity and charity 
would require that it should even be offered, he found 
that it was wanting and not forthcoming. 

58. He knew that he too had his failings, so he made 
it a rule to be in the world's way as little as is possible. 

59. The reason why the common part of mankind 
respect a man who contemns them, is because they 
feel and are aware that the greatest part of mankind 
deserve to be contemned, and that he must evidently 
be a man of judgment to be able to notice their insig- 
nificance. 

60. Since we know that the character of man in 
general is unreliable, and that our friends and relatives, 
even tiiose of our own family, belong to the human 
race as well, why should we not suspect them as well 
as the rest of mankind, and thus avoid being made 
their dupes, and preventing much evil. 

61. A genuine man will never settle an affair with 
long arguments, contention, disputes or at law, but 
where his opponent is incapable of recognizing what 
is apparently right, he makes it an imperative com- 
mand on the latter; if this do not succeed, the only 
way left is to simply give way by silence. When all 
moral principles have failed, such a retreat is honor- 
able ; he feels that there is no equality between him- 
self and his opponent, and that there is therefore also 
no satisfaction to be had. 

62. The reason why we fear the coming of a mis- 
fortune, is because we do not know whether or not we 



196 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

can meet it ; and the reason why we are often entirely 
at peace and at rest when it has occurred, is because 
we see that we are entirely able to meet it. The truly 
wise man does not wait for the coming of the event to 
prove to him that he will be able to meet it, but he 
knows before hand that, when the event does occur, 
other events will also occur in connection with it 
that will regulate a man's course in life better than he 
could have regulated it himself, as relates to material 
losses and misfortunes. 

In regard to the character of a man it is the oppo- 
site with men in general; here the fear of the conse- 
quences for an immoral act are less than the punish- 
ment is that follows ; the ordinary man plunges into 
vice and evil voluntarily, but repents involuntarily. 
This proves that he has no moral character of his 
own; nothing but an exterior moral influence can put 
an end to his sin. But the fears of the philosopher 
for the consequences of an immoral act are greater 
than the force of the act itself, and thus when it does 
take place, he is at ease with himself, for he is able to 
meet it. If we will but carefully notice how, when a 
good or evil proposition is made to a man, he will re- 
regard it in the beginning, we can generally distin- 
guish his moral character, with such infallibility will 
the moral or immoral principle control him, which is 
noticeable in his exterior. But there must be no re- 
straint to influence him. 

63. God blesses those he loves a little, and punishes 
those he loves most; at least so it is in this world. This 
is doubtless the reason why men in general are more 
subject to temptations of the former than to tempta- 
tions of the latter. 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 197 

64. H could lie when he did. not want to, and could 
not tell the truth when he did want to. 

65. Continually bear this in mind : Mankind in gen- 
eral bear more enmity towards one another than they 
do friendship. 

66. What a filthy lie X could tell merely to be able 
to accomplish a filthy end ! 

67. To see how strong man is morally, just consider 
how easily the wound made by the arrow of a blind 
infant can prove mortal in him. 

68. If there be any worth whatever in a man, it is 
better to be alone and be like himself, than be with 
others and be like them. 

69. Money was invented for the vulgar, not for the 
anointed or the elect. 

70. Everything has its proportionate opposite. A 
man's contempt after sexual intercourse is as great 
as his love was before the intercourse. 

71 He was one of the extremely few men who, in 
any undertaking, inquired of himself, how it would 
effect good morals. 

72. What is very good remains, and what is very 
bad remains also. 

73. It seems to be with man as it is with the lower 
animal, namely, the commoner, the more they live in 
flocks and herds. 



198 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

74. Morally speaking, lie never wanted a woman to 
look at Mm with an eye of inclination, because, as 
he said, there was always a temptation connected 
with it. 

75. He preferred a woman's calling him her enemy 
to having her call him her lover. 

76. The fact alone that man protects only his own 
interests, or those of persons in whom he is interested, 
is evidence sufficient that he is a selfish, dishonest 
and base being, 

77. It is clear how low morally man in general 
stands, when it is considered that those who do pos- 
sess a moral character, the highest, are counted as 
heroes, and therefore entitled to worship. 

78. Whenever B wanted his moral or intellectual 
disgust raised, all that was needed, was to familiarly 
associate with his fellow men. 

79. There are only three things that mankind in 
general want, namely, satisfaction of the body, the 
other sex and lucre ; all the rest is nothing to them. 

80. A noble soul finds no companions in its pilgrim- 
age through life; it simply has to make its travels 
alone, 

81. Whenever weary, disappointed or disgusted with 
men and things in general, he still had left an inward 
consolation that made him feel like a better and more 
innocent man, than if he took a part in the search after 
wealth, politics or familiar intercourse with his fellow 
men. 



HE IS BY NATURE BASE. 199 

82. Not even the anointed escape the vituperations 
of the world. 

83. All men are very thoughtful as to whether they 
are considered popular, rich or shrewd, but it annoys 
the peace of very few men as to whether they are con- 
sidered honest and upright in character. 

84. A man always talking well of his fellow men is 
a more dangerous man than one who is always talking 
evil of them. 

85. People of fashion use that as show and ornament, 
which, if necessity required them to use in their daily 
life, they would condemn. What excellent means 
such people themselves are to warn us as to our rela- 
tions with them ! 

86. At the masquerades they have what they call 
fools, who pretend to act as such ; this is superfluous, 
since any man who will make pretence to folly must 
ipso facto be a fool. 

87. "If I have said to corruption, Thou art my fath- 
er; to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister; 
where then is my hope t 77 * It is in this sense of cor- 
ruption and sin that is in the human blood, that all 
great thinkers have regarded the human family= 

* job. xvii, 14. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE CONSCIENCE. 

1. Some ancient philosopher says that what a man 
is not ashamed to do, he should not be ashamed to 
have known, going on the principle that the shame 
does not lie in its being known, but it lies in the con- 
science — the guilty character of the individual him- 
self. This is entirely correct so far as the individual 
himself is concerned; but so far as the welfare, the 
decorum and propriety , of a community are concerned, 
it is highly necessary to keep that a secret that would 
otherwise act as a bad example for others. A man 
and woman will never commit adultery in the public 
streets, even though their conscience does sting them, 
and they know that it is generally known that they 
lead an adulterous life. What are matters, therefore, 
of the conscience are not always required to be 
known, even of the most conscientious man, because 
to have them known is probably a greater damage to 
the general welfare and himself than a benefit to 
either. 

2, So great is the compunction in regard to having 
committed a crime or an immoral act, especially when 
the world is cognizant of it, that, in some cases, it 
causes the body to undergo a complete change, that 
is, from life to death, by suicide or through grief. 
This is possible only of an intelligent being. In such 

200 



THE CONSCIENCE. 201 

a case the unfortunate being feels that he can no 
longer exist even as an organic existence, 

3. What we call conscience in regard to having 
committed a crime or in regard to our misconduct to 
others, is nothing else than the self rebuke that we 
find with our faults, as elation is when we feel that 
we have done something good or great; they both 
arise from the fact that man has been taught from his 
infancy that what is bad is detrimental, and what is 
good is advantageous to his fellow men ; though this 
conception arises clearly only in the mind of a thinker, 
ordinary men and children know it only from precepts, 
and their knowledge is therefore only secondary, and 
they can therefore give no reason why a law, for in- 
stance, must be obeyed. This is the reason why per- 
sons entirely ignorant of the fundamental principles 
of a state, have a weaker sting of the conscience. 

4. Eight is enforced by might only ; it has no power 
of itself to make itself prevail. The conscience serves 
as a governor and judge, and may control, in many 
cases, the individual sufficiently to make him do that 
which he ought to do. But man is not a being that 
does right merely because it is right to do so ; noth- 
ing but an exterior force will compel obedience— the 
sword and the prison 

5. Self rebuke must be greater to the conscientious 
man than the rebuke of his fellow men, for an im- 
proper act This comes from the fact that the reform 
that a good man will undertake will always, as he 
X>robably knows himself, still fall short of the rebuke; 
hence it must be strong to accomplish anything at all. 



202 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

6. X had that fault about his character that most 
men have, namely, of repenting at their acts; but 
from his repentance never any reform was seen to 
follow. He simply had no conscience in him. 



CHAPTER IV, 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT. 

1. In the man of high intelligence and long exper- 
ience in this life, accountability for an immoral or 
criminal act is well founded and established; his 
mind never thinks of questioning the right of punish- 
ment in a given case, arising from the fact that his 
high intelligence and long experience have taught 
him that retribution with man is a necessity. 

But with an individual lacking sufficient intelli- 
gence, there is no accountability felt for an improper 
act ; in such a case the punishment is meted out by 
the state or his fellow men without his being aware of 
the propriety of the punishment ; he simply submits, 
as the dog does to the lashes of his master c 

2. Christ's principle that no one has a right to pun- 
ish (except for self-defence), is in every sense correct, 
and even for self-defence Christ will not allow punish- 
ment if an injury result to the aggressor, especially 
where the injury would be greater than the benefit 
derived by the victim. Even in cases of self-defence 
the person so defending himself feels, after the pas- 
sions have cooled, that he would probably not like to 
do it again under the same circumstances. But es- 
pecially does remorse come, unless the individual be 
wholy depraved, after a lapse of time where nothing 
has been gained for an act of defence; in some cases 
the individual even feels that he would have rather 

203 



204 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

taken the attack of the aggressor than to have defend- 
ed himself; so does the human heart rise against 
vengeance. 

3. Every being, the state as well, has a right to de- 
stroy its opponent when in self-defence. But if the 
principle, that only he must be held accountable for 
his acts who has reason, were correct, the right of self- 
defence to the extent of killing the opponent could not 
exist, and yet no one doubts but that such a right does 
exist in a state of nature, and even law, excepting, 
probably, the law of morality. A man has a right to 
kill his opponent when in self-defence, ev&i though the 
latter be intoxicated, or be a woman or a child; one 
life is as dear as another to one's self. 

And now take the state, on whose existence depends 
the civilization of millions of subjects, and it is easily 
seen that to destroy the life of a single being (culprit) 
to keep this civilization preserved, is a mere trifle 
compared to the benefit that is to be derived from it; 
especially, when we consider that a king is justified in 
sacrificing the lives of thousands of human beings 
merely for the sake of preserving a particular form of 
government, as he in fact djes in wars. 

4. There are three kinds of law to which man is 
answerable, those of nature, those of the state and 
those of morality ; the first concern him as an animal, 
the second as a citizen, the third as an intellectual 
being. The laws of nature are the most effective and 
receive the greatest obedience and submission directly, 
for thejr concern him as an existence, and to this end 
nature brings all her force to bear to cause compli- 
ance; it is of no consequence to her whether the other 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT. 205 

two are so directly obeyed or not. In fact, they are 
all only natural laws. 

Next conies the law of the land, the written code. 
Here the object is the existence of the state. The 
state being an institution necessary for man to be able 
to assist, in part, his existence as an animal, its obedi- 
ence from him is limited, secondary, only so much as 
is consistent with the natural obedience. This law, 
belonging in part to the first kind and in part to the 
last kind, is partly natural and partly moral. 

The last, and the greatest, is the law of morality, 
the dictates of the conscience, which is always in pro- 
portion to the intellect; this law punishes all offenses 
against morality, against the state and against na- 
ture; the two last kinds are comprised in this, and 
whoever takes it as his guide will never be subject to 
either of the first two, and whoever violates either of 
the first two, and though he be punished by them, will 
also be held accountable to this, this not being two 
punishments for one offence, but only one, for the first 
two laws being only subordinate branches of the last. 
No offense whatever escapes this tribunal, there is 
no trifling with justice here, for all those offenses that 
escape the first two, will here be tried. The laws of 
the universe are moral laws, and not merely physical; 
consequently, every act that occurs, is subject to them. 
Eeligion and the different courts that judge of our 
acts are only based on these laws, and therefore are 
only subordinate institutions to morality. A moralist 
will therefore pass by a church with as much indiffer- 
ence as he would a house of correction, they being only 
the subordinate branches of the one (morality) that 
he has founded, and therefore have no application as 
to him j his God is this morality itself, his heaven is 



206 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

the peaceful state of the conscience, and his hell is the 
stinging of the conscience; and whoever has not the 
first, will not have either of the two others, for they 
are only a result of the first. 

5. As man is a mere means, as everything else, it is 
as consistent that he should lose his life through the 
state for a crime that he has committed, as it is 
that he should die a natural death; the committing the 
crime is not his act any more than his birth is; it is 
the act of nature that through her laws has compelled 
him to do it ; he does not stand under his own domin- 
ion, but under the dominion of nature. It is upon this 
principle, namely, that nature so wants it, that retri- 
bution is meted out, the state being only the machine 
for fulfilling the natural dictates. 

It follows from this, that morality is nothing in- 
dependent from nature herself ; it is not an institution 
that man is the originator of, consequently, to demon- 
strate it, is as difficult as metaphysics; it is a conse- 
quence of man, as such, as much as digestion of his 
food is a consequence of him considering him as an 
organic being. 

6. The punishment that man suffers for his sins is 
endured during his sojouxn in this world; it would be 
unjust and only in accordance with the highest prin- 
ciples of tyranny, and therefore inconsistent with the 
idea of a God, that men like Christ have, to punish a 
man twice for the same offence. Even in this world, 
man suffers by far more directly for the offences that 
he does commit, than he receives a benefit from them ; 
besides, one offence brings on a train of others, which 
is of itself sufficient evil and punishment. 



REWARDS AXD PUNISHMENT. 207 

Punishment inevitably follows where a sin or crime 
is committed, though it be not effected by visible ex- 
ternal force or authority, for it lies in the laws of na- 
ture to punish or reward in one way or other. So thor- 
oughly do mankind, instinctively as I would call it, 
feel the necessity of punishment for a crime that, even 
though it be not openly known, they will in many 
cases voluntarily disclose their own guilt. 

7. For every crime and fault that man commits, he 
meets with its proper punishment, and every meritor- 
ious action meets with its proper reward in the author 
of it, in one way or other, and sooner or later. This 
is the natural justice, and in this natural justice lies 
the secret of the justice of all things created ; it is by 
virtue of it that they are brought into existence. 
The tribunal that administers justice in the creation 
of an insignificant worm, is the same tribunal that 
sits and judges of man's conduct as a member of the 
community in which he lives, executing its own pro- 
cess through its own created object, man, who pos- 
sesses the necessary functions for this purpose. 

8. There is a law in the criminal code of nature, 
that he who cheats will in the end be cheated: thus 
we see, that men who have acquired their wealth by 
dishonest practices, either lose the whole estate in the 
end, or in particular transactions are imposed upon by 
one who is as shrewd as themselves. Eascality al- 
ways has its equal, especially when we consider that 
in this calling most men delight to excel. 

In those cases where an unjust act does not meet 
its proper punishment by the law of the land, nature 
takes the matter into hand, and does it in an indirect 



208 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

way. Could we have an accounting at the end of a 
man's life of all the good and bad acts committed by 
him during his life, we would find that his account 
is equally balanced ; that, for every good act, he receiv- 
ed a proportionate benefit, and for every bad act a 
proportionate punishment ; if it could not be balanced, 
act for act, it would be that for the total amount of 
good, he received a total amount of benefit, and for 
the total amount of bad, he received a total amount 
of punishment. Bribery is out of the question here. 
a Eevenge is mine, says the Lord," is well founded, 
because the retributive justice that Christ everywhere 
recognized will sooner or later be meted out, would 
not be properly meted out by the individual who has 
been wronged, if it were left to him, because this 
would be allowing him to be his own judge, and he 
would therefore transcend his power, or, a man's for- 
giving nature would not, in certain cases, punish at 
all, and the ends of justice would thereby be defeated. 
Evidently justice leaves it to the victim to punish 
when in a particular case the circumstances are such 
as to compel him to deal according to its principles. 

9. The state is indifferent as to the victim, it takes 
notice only of the offence, and that only so far as it 
has affected the dignity of the state ; the victim is only 
a means of leading to a proper punishment as to the 
offence. 

10. If the victim demand why punish him for an act 
that he is not the author of, the only answer that can 
be given, is, that the punishment follows as necessarily 
as his crime did, because the laws of nature so demand 
it. We even find that it is true, that man must sub- 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT. 209 

mit to punishment or loss of property, in many cases, 
without even being guilty directly of any criminal 
conduct. What answer can a general give, why he 
ordered a whole regiment of soldiers into battle to 
lose their own lives, against their own will, except- 
ing, because the country demanded it ? The criminal 
is no more answerable for committing the crime than 
the soldier is for the cause of war ; both become vic- 
tims for a higher good (the prosperity of the state ), 
and as this is of greater importance than the single 
existence of one being, he must yield, the same as an 
individual physically inferior must submit to one phys- 
ically superior. What excuse will a giant give for 
slaying a dwarf f 

What the ultimate end may be in nature in so 
ordering things, is not the question here ; nor could it 
be answered, if it were. 

11. All people seeing that a man is sooner or later 
rewarded for his good acts, and prayers being only a 
consideration in return for the good that has been re- 
ceived, the ordinary man thinks that the good that is 
in him is owing to his prayers ; he does not see that it 
was nature that had created him good as much as it 
was nature that dictated to him that he must propa- 
gate, or eat or drink. A good man naturally feeling 
grateful because he has been created good, and thus 
has the advantage over most men, he, for this reason, 
offers up prayers. Lichtenberg says, the prayers fol- 
low from his good character, but the good character 
does not follow from the prayers. 

12. Whatever we enjoy beyond the necessaries of 
life, we have to suffer for; this is true of all animals. 

14 



210 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

The general laws of nature as to propriety run 
through every existence, and any violation of them 
either in the individual himself, or from an exterior 
source, calls for retribution. 

The beggar, who receives from charity only such 
eatables as are necessary for his actual maintenance, 
is a more obedient subject to the natural laws than 
the sumptuous glutton ; the former lives in a manner 
to prolong his life; the latter lives in a manner to 
shorten it. 

13. Only so far as our existence, either as natural 
beings or civilized beings is concerned, have we any- 
thing to employ us. To create or to preserve this 
existence we reward (create) that which is good, and 
to preserve this good we punish (destroy) that which 
is bad. 

14. The accountability for an improper act lies in 
the fact that it is supposed to have been brought 
about by the intellect; the punishment follows because 
the act was brought about meditatively. It is not 
that the feeling exists to commit an unlawful act that 
accountability is called for, for feeling alone is a mat- 
ter of the heart. It is upon the principle that beasts 
have no reason, that they are not held accountable to 
the same extent as a rational being is. But might it 
not be claimed that the unlawful acts of most men 
rest on but very little more reason than those of the 
brute ? 

The desire to do an act that is improper, with the 
wish to commit it added to it, makes a man, morally, 
accountable in the same manner as if he had actually 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT. 211 

committed it.* But the mere desire to do an improp- 
er act, which is meditatively conquered, does not lead 
to punishment, because here the mind gloriously shows 
itself to be innocent. 

15. Christ always forgave, upon the principle that 
the act not being able to be recalled, the best next way 
was to clear the way for a better future course, by as- 
suring the offender that the present offense should be 
no obstacle to a reformation. He would punish only 
where reformation was out of the question, and where 
the offender misused his mercy. To forgive should be 
as cautiously practiced as punishment, for to forgive 
where it will have no benefit, is to add to the present 
danger, for it gives the offender to understand that 
his acts will meet with no more punishment in the fu- 
ture than the present one did; this is even a more 
dangerous course than where the offender is over- 
punished for his acts. There are more criminals made 
by affection, than by a state of indifference or even 
hatred. 

16. The moral character and degree of intelligence 
having been fixed and determined by notice in every 
being, without questioning the individual himself, the 
two come under and are subject to the same principles, 
respectively, of praise or vituperation ; this is because 
they both have great consequences, a moral character 
and wisdom in advancing, and an immoral character 
and folly in destroying the principles on which civiliza- 
tion rests. But as long as the character or the intel- 
lect is not active, neither praise nor vituperation can 

* Matthew v, 28. 



212 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

be meted out, because neither the one nor the other 
has done any good or any bad. 

17. If Schopenhauer be correct, which he very prob- 
ably is, in saying that, when men do justice towards 
one another voluntarily, it rests on the principle of 
sympathy for one another, for they feel that they are 
all one, and that therefore they are only doing what 
they owe to themselves, then it also follows that there- 
morse that a man has at an improper act of his own, 
rests on the same principle — he feels that he has done 
himself the injury. 

18. The reason why an offense that is left unreveng- 
ed, punishes the offender more than if revenged, is 
because now the conscience can act on the offender, 
his thoughts being taken up with nothing else; but if 
revenge be meted out against him, his thoughts are 
taken up with counter-revenge, and now believes 
that his victim is entitled to no mercy, since he sees 
that he too will do an injury. 

19. From the fact that man since he has been civi- 
lized, has found it necessary to reward what is good 
and great, and punish what is bad and evil, men feel 
that honor should be bestowed when a good act is done T 
and punishment meted out when a bad one is done; 
hence the disappointment if their good acts be not 
recognized. But not so is it with the Genius; he 
does not do good and great things to be able to obtain 
praise ; but he does them because it is his nature so 
to act ; it is a duty with him ; he therefore seeks the 
side and unfrequented streets where there will be no 
one to hail him and over-load him with praises ; he 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT. 213 

feels that this would be bestowing on him what he is 
not entitled to, he having acted as he did act because 
he could not have acted otherwise. On the same prin- 
ciple, he does not punish the poor offender ; he rather 
gives him his pity and humanity, for he feels that this 
poor fellow also acted as he did act, because he could 
not have acted otherwise. 

It is on the same principle, namely, that a man's not 
being the author of his own acts, and that for the good 
that he does do in one way or other, he will also suffi- 
ciently otherwise receive full compensation, his fellow 
men never erect a statue to him during his life-time, 
but they erect it to his memory, nor do they write his 
biography until he has passed away; honor is not 
done to the man himself, but to the good and great 
cause that he only represented. Dr. Johnson once 
having occasion to be in the work-shop of a carpenter, 
the latter undertook to show and explain to him cer- 
tain things relating to his craft; and having afterwards 
been reminded by one of his friends how even a com- 
mon workman had honored him, he said that the com- 
pliment was shown to literature, not to himself. 

It is only the common mass of people who never as- 
sist man to rise from his brute state, because they them- 
selves have more or less of this state still about them, 
who never founded a state, because they had no moral 
system to base it on, and who therefore never did and 
never will understand on what principles reward and 
punishment rest, that are the ones that misuse and 
abuse their power of rewarding or punishing, and that 
are always complaining when their own good acts arc 
left unnoticed, or the bad acts of others left unpunished. 
Take the whole English nobility, as an instance, and I 
suppose there is hardly a single one among them who 



214: A TREATISE ON MAN. 

knows why he should have a star on his breast, and, 
for that reason alone, hardly a single one among them 
who is entitled to it. 

If the world has agreed that a man for his excellent 
services to the state should be rewarded with a dis- 
tinction of honor, if he be a true hero, he can not con- 
scientiously accept it, because these acts were the re- 
sult of the dictates of his nature as well as his dishon- 
orable ones would be. The most that he will be allow- 
ed to do is to accept it nominally, in order to encourage 
the good and the great, but not as a benefit to himself. 
It was in this sense that Christ accepted the ointment 
on his head, or that genuine heroes accept a title or 
a reward, but it is seldom that they avail themselves 
of it. Besides, the value of a title or reward coming 
from one who possesses nothing but the power to con- 
fer it, is mere filth compared to the heroic or intellec- 
tual services of a man who by them evinced that he 
stands far above the individual that gives it. But, 
also, the reason why a genuine and great man who 
might be entitled to some compensation will generally 
reject a title or reward, is because he knows he will be 
classified with those who are not entitled to it, and yet 
who have it. 

20. The superior must always govern, whether it be 
superiority of body or of mind; it is upon this princi- 
ple that the stronger animal devours the weaker. 
- This is so in regard to all substances ; that substance 
that has the stronger properties, absorbs that which 
has the weaker properties. As there is a progression^ 
a continual operating, in nature, no animal or sub- 
stance could otherwise exist as such ; it would simply 
disappear and vanish, or at the most, remain in its 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT. 215 

present state. So it is with the state ; if it did not 
devour its victims (culprits), it would vanish ; anarchy 
would take its place. 

21. Punishment is meted out to men only so far as it 
is necessary to preserve the state, and as the preserva- 
tion of society is the preservation of the state, moral 
laws are necessary. But as everything must have its 
boundaries, vengeance has its counterpart in human- 
ity, otherwise it would take the form of revenge, and 
this would frustrate the aim of justice — preservation 
of the state. 

The lower animal, which follows the direct laws of 
nature, and therefore recognizes all its acts as being 
in order, does not avenge as man does, consequently, 
it has no need for humanity. 

22. The fact that in one age there is more depravity 
than in another, arises from the fact that the laws are 
not properly executed, or it has been the misfortune 
of such an age to have more scoundrels than other 
ages; but it is not owing to any fact that the moral 
character is a different one from what it is in other ages. 

When the head of a government is depraved, the 
mass of the people will also become depraved generally, 
for there is nothing so deductive *for the commoa man 
to commit a bad act as it is when he sees that his sur- 
perior commits the same act. 

The moral teachings of great men reach only a few; 
but if the monarch be moral, and strictly carry out his 
laws, then it will have its good effect on the nation, 
and this is doubtless the best practical effect and in- 
fluence that can be exercised over the mass of the 
people. 



216 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

23. The temptations to do evil are always greater 
than those to do good. Only where one sees it is to 
his benefit to do good, will he do good; but as the 
struggle for existence, whose propensities are those of 
an animal, is more powerful than the intellect is, the 
great difficulty lies in getting the individual to see 
what is really good for him. 

24. An individual who possesses no sympathy, and 
therefore commits acts that are injurious to his fellow 
men, but which probably can not be reached by the 
law, should be instructed and reformed. If this fail, 
excepting with children, I know of no authority to 
punish him actively; it must be done passively — 
by avoiding him. 

25. An act that now occurs from necessity by which 
another is damaged, will, sooner or later, be met by 
one, also coming from necessity, that will set it right 
again. The wheel of nature turns perpetually, and 
there is therefore no escape for the wicked part of us 
from punishment, and no danger that the good part of 
us will be without reward. Christ therefore, than 
whom no man ever better knew the effects of mor- 
ality, so beautifully says " So the last shall be first, 
and the first last." * Herein probably lies the greatest 
consolation of the justice of all things that man in 
his misfortunes can have, and at the same time shows 
how inevitably the laws of nature work. 

26. The harlot instinctively feels the necessity of 
being one. When I see a woman voluntarily abandon 

* Matthew xx, 16. 



REWAEDS AND PUNISHMENT. 217 

a respectable mode of life, and willingly submit to the 
contempt that the world hurls at her, I can not but 
feel that there is a purpose here, however degrading 
it may be to man as a moral being. Nature creates 
everything with proper functions to perform its duties, 
and it is therefore that every other being is as posi- 
tively allotted to his position in the state as the 
statesman is in his cabinet. The soldier must sacrifice 
his life for the state ; it is demanded of the hero that 
he willingly submit to death if the prosperity of the 
state require it, how shocking soever it may appear 
to humanity. Now why not other means to reach, 
indirectly, the same end ? 

In the state all existences that are merely physical, 
must yield and be sacrificed for the benefit of the 
intellectual. 

27. On what principle does it rest in nature, that 
certain lower animals^ such as the elephant and camel, 
avenge or revenge themselves for an injury done 
them? It is on the same principle as that of man, 
when he punishes for a private offence against himself 
or for one against the state. Jurists are at a loss to ac- 
count for the punishment that they mete out against 
an offender that appears before them; it is probably 
therefore also more or less instinctive with them, as it 
is with the elephant and camel. 

Does the lowest brute of the human family know why 
he gives you a blow when you take his loaf of bread, 
any more than the elephant does when you misuse him? 
The statesman lays out certain punishments for certain 
offences, because, so much as he is animal, he possess- 
es the same instinctive punishment, and, so much as 
he is man, he sees by his intellect the necessity of pun- 



218 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

ishnient if the state is to exist. To maintain that it is 
something inspired, or that it is man's abstract reason- 
ing that establishes it, is nothing but an abortive and 
bastard outgrowth of religion, never warranted by 
Christ himself, who everywhere seems to recognize 
that everything that occurs is amply provided for, and 
occurs independent of man, he being but subject to the 
necessity of things himself. So Buddha teaches that 
sooner or later the bad meets with its punishment and 
the good with its reward ; that our acts stand in con- 
nection and are a part of the acts of the whole universe. 

28. If punishment and reward depended upon man, 
what a miserable world this would be ! The man, for 
instance, that is the greatest ornament to his race — 
the moralist— is the man that is most disrespected by 
even those whom he has come to serve morally; he is 
the last man that is considered a benefactor to his 
race, and he is the man that is most subject to the 
devilish annoyances and abuses of his fellow men. 
Who was it that gave his whole life for the benefit of 
his fellow men, and yet who was it that suffered most 
from the hands of those very fellow men ? No, such a 
victim does not expect that a race that can so abuse 
what is great and good when it is held directly before 
their eyes, can either be capable of setting such a state 
of things right again; he feels that there is a higher 
power that has an object in all this ; that this is only its 
means, and that keeping this same object in view, it 
will bring about an opposite state of things — a means 
also. 

29. The reason that a sick or otherwise helpless 
man receives the assistance and protection of his fel- 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT. 219 

low men, although he be a man that is otherwise con- 
temned and despised, is because he is entitled to 
compensation for his suffering ; when his suffering is 
very great, and he willingly submits, it has something 
heroic in it, and he is therefore entitled to even re- 
ward and honor. There is a submission and indiffer- 
ence to pain that brutes also disclose, which is often 
but this is not heroic. 

30. Acts that are private and intended for the bene- 
fit of the individual himself, but which are of a good 
character, such as industry in business, for instance, 
are always praiseworthy, because they set a good ex- 
ample for others, and keep the individual himself, for 
the time at least, out of vice and evil. An honest, in- 
dustrious, hard-working man, he who plies his trade 
in earnest, and without avarice, has always an appear- 
ance of respect about him, even though all that his 
labors yield him scantily is absorbed by himself, for 
one feels that his integrity is a good example for the 
youth growing up around him; besides, it impresses 
one that if such a man is faithful to himself, he will 
be faithful also to the rest of mankind. 

31. The reason why an insult, offense or other mis- 
fortune, if not heeded at the time that it occurs, does 
not affect us afterwards, is because the mind considers 
that if it did not affect us at the time that it occurred, 
it must evidently be of no consequence. And this is 
the proper way of treating the common offenses in a 
man's life, because it brings about great peace of mind, 
and prevents an injury being done in return, to the 
offender, who probably has since repented of his act. 
Only such offenses as may result in a future damage, 



220 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

should be taken notice of, and then only to the extent 
of avoiding the damage. 

32. He cared not a fig when his friends reminded 
him that his coat was a fine one, but, as it is so excep- 
tional that not one man in ten thousand can say the 
same, he did rejoice in his soul, when they reminded 
him that he was an honest man, because an honest 
man is the noblest work of God, as Pope beautifully 
says. 

33. As Christianity, Buddhism and moralists teach 
it, life itself is a sin ; hence the manifold sufferings. 
If our existence were in order morally, why should a 
man be insulted or offended by one to whom he did no 
evil or injury, in fact, probably, whom he has never 
before seen ? Is it not that the offender, seeing that 
his victim is a human being, from this concludes that 
he therefore sins, and thus, instinctively feeling that 
he is to be the avenger, punishes him for his sinful 
nature? As everything is in order, according to 
natural principles, why should not this insult, this 
offense, also be in order ? how could it otherwise 
occur ? it certainly has reference to something that is 
in the victim, that deserves it. 



CHAPTER V. 



KELIGION. 

1. Philosophy always remains what it is; the phi- 
losophy taught by Plato is the philosophy taught by 
the Genius of to-day ; wisdom never changes ; in all 
ages and all countries it is the same. But it is not so 
with religion; this changes every century or two, 
somtimes oftener, and is different in different countries. 
Even the manner of governing a state is nearly the 
same in different countries, and justice is administered 
nearly in the same manner, so that the person and 
property of a Chinaman is as well protected in Amer- 
ica as it is in China, and vice versa. But as they 
are different nations, so do they have different relig- 
ions. 

Now, among such a variety of different creeds and 
sects, which can be said to be the true one? They all 
have more or less able supporters, and the truth there- 
fore is, that every one is correct for its particular clime 
and particular people, but not any particular one to 
be preferred above all the rest. The peculiarity of a 
religion to a particular country simply arises from ne- 
cessity and prejudices; it is not that there is any par- 
ticular or special wisdom in that particular creed, but 
it is because the adherents of it have so been reared 
and instructed; and as there is nothing so foolish and 
absurd, but that it can be imposed upon the vulgar, 
especially when the imposition is begun in infancy, it 
is very plain how one man will maintain the correct- 

221 



222 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

ness of the principles of his religion with obstinacy 
against those of his opponent. 

But Christianity, Buddhism and Brahminism claim 
the universal admiration of philosophers to the extent 
that they partake of wisdom. Christ was a philosopher 
and a mendicant as those of the East, and is there- 
fore revered by all men whether they be religious or 
philosophical. But strong as Christ's religion, as it is 
called, may have taken hold, it must suffer the vicis- 
situdes that all doctrines suffer that Kant proves can 
not be demonstrated, for it is confined to its particular 
teachings, and therefore applicable only to Europeans 
and Americans. 

It is not so with his morality ; that is applicable in 
the whole Orient as well as in the whole Occident. 
His religious teachings, even as he himself main- 
tains them, are of so general a character as to be con- 
sistent with morality; but as his religion is now taught 
and become divided and subdivided, to the extent 
even that wars and revolutions, especially individual 
persecutions, have occurred from mere forms and cere* 
monies, thus neglecting and ignoring its genuine 
spirit, its own adherents and followers have become 
his greatest falsifiers and enemies, for the antagonis- 
tic attitude that they assume towards one another, 
their pharisaical hypocrisy and observance of the Sab- 
bath, their converting his religion into a means of busi- 
ness and politics, are precisely in letter and in spirit 
what he contended against. 

2. All of man's institutions, such as religion, politics 
and morality, are not as reliable as nature's institutions j 
their origin is generally grand and noble, but in order 
that man do not leave his original state, nature com- 



RELIGION. 223 

pels them to undergo a continual change as well as 
everything else ; and in order to reach this end in re- 
ligion, she produces the worst kind of hypocrites, both 
to stand behind the pulpit and to sit in the pew; in 
politics she reaches this end by letting the worst 
demagogues get hold of the reins of government, and 
in ethics, by placing the worst sophists on the cathe- 
dra; and for this purpose no better material could 
be found. 

3. All that part of the teachings of Christ that has 
anything of the divine and supernatural in it, should 
be taken in an allegorical sense, as Schopenhauer says. 
When, for instance Christ represents himself as the 
representative of God, he means that he is the repre- 
sentative of morality ; he takes God as his figure of 
representation in order to make it clearer to the un- 
lettered multitude, and thereby makes a stronger im- 
pression on them than if he used the word morality, 
since the word God imposes greater fear and rever- 
ence; merely to teach something that is human, would 
cause no more heed to be given to it than he himself 
received honors in the place of his birth, for there they 
knew him only as a human being. 

Besides, we should consider how unreliable the au- 
thorities through which we know anything of the man, 
really are, and we can, therefore, not safely assume 
even that he did actually represent himself as the 
vicegerent of God either in reality or allegorically, 
or that he ever claimed to have in fact performed a 
miracle. The great misfortune of the teachings of 
this man is, that they fell into religious hands; the 
church, which is always an unreliable source of truth, 
was thus in a condition to make them correspond 



224 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

with the prophecies of the Old Testament. How 
much purer and more edifying would they probably 
not appear, had his history and teachings fallen into 
the hands of some honest and learned compiler, to 
deliver them to us, as the writings of those great men 
do, who have had the better fortune of finding admir- 
ers devoted to truth and wisdom rather than to the 
egotistic views of a particular religion. 

4. The Christian church has always been on the ag- 
gressive, evidently arising from the condition of its 
own weakness ; it has from the earliest ages attacked 
and persecuted every man of genius that has not seen 
fit to adhere to its doctrines. Its followers speak of 
the persecution that it had to suffer in the first centu- 
ries, and condemn and execrate everything under the 
Boinan empire that resisted its progress, but do not 
see that, in the same manner as they were resisted, 
they themselves resisted all progress of philosophy 
that threatened in any wise to overthrow their fabric, 
for no sooner had the Christian religion obtained the 
temporal power in Europe, than they resorted to perse- 
cutions that sometimes beggar description. After the 
reformation, the Protestant religion pursued a milder 
course, to be able to obtain a foot-hold, and as long 
as its founder's influence lasted. Bat were it not for 
the strides that science has taken since the time of 
Bacon, the bigoted followers of the church would com- 
pel religious observance in this age, as we see that a 
part of them still, although a disgrace to their master, 
make efforts to force the observance of the Jewish Sab- 
bath on every man. In fact, the one would overthrow 
the other if possible, so do they quarrel amongst them 
selves. Christ and Buddha were both tolerant, and 



RELIGION. 225 

never forced their doctrines on any man; so was 
Luther ; with them religion was a matter of the con- 
science ; with them wisdom was a blessing, no matter 
in what form it came. 

5. Every being and every institution has its faults 
and errors ; to deny this is simply to bring under still 
greater doubt, the excellences of such a being or in- 
stitution. In the whole history of Christ, there is not 
a blemish or a fault attributed to him, although he 
himself confessed a more or less erring nature ; either 
his historians did not know his true biography, which 
is probable, or their prejudice and dishonesty were too 
great to admit what was palpable, which too is proba- 
ble. 

So also theologians will not admit of any error or 
fault in their creed, which is of itself sufficient to 
cause suspicion in the minds of its followers ; it is this 
unyielding stubbornness as to the complete perfection 
of Christ and his church, that causes even the most 
common mind to hesitate, and it can never succeed in 
bringing over the people of the Orient as its followers. 

6. The theologians are not strict teachers of moral- 
ity ; they use their religion to threaten their adherents 
with punishment if they do not live virtuously, and 
promise them rewards if they live virtuously. In 
other words, religion is used as a terror and a fool's 
paradise. Instead of using moral instruction to their 
followers, and showing them how virtue leads to the 
greatest happiness of a man's life, and vice to his ruin 
and destruction, they use nothing but threats and 
promises, which serve to some purpose as long as 
people will allow themselves to be treated as women 

15 



226 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

and children, on whom we use threats that can never 
be carried out, and promises that can never he kept. 

To appeal to a man's reason, such as he may have, 
and base the punishment of a vice and the reward of 
virtue on that, will last as long as this reason lasts, 
and, although he will more or less deviate from the 
correct course, yet he will always return to it, because 
he finds it based on wisdom, unless he be a man whol- 
ly depraved and entirely beyond the reach of salva- 
tion, in which case mere threats will have a still less 
effect. To compel a man to act virtuously by invoking 
supernatural powers, fails of its desired effect either 
because it can not be comprehended, or because it is 
afterwards ascertained that the whole theory is noth- 
ing but a pious fraud. It may be that these gentle- 
men are better versed from experience in what manner 
the human family is best governed, whether by fraud 
and deceit or by wholesome teachings based on wis- 
dom, and therefore give them what they believe is most 
conducive to their welfare, as Solon gave the Atheni- 
ans not the best laws, but such as were best suited 
for them, as he said, and thus do as despots do, namely, 
not govern their people on principles of abstract law, 
but by threats of superior physical force. But as for 
myself, I feel as Schopenhauer did, namely, that not 
much good can be expected from that which is false and 
wilfully based on erroneous principles. I agree with 
the theologians, in regarding the human family as con- 
sisting chiefly of children, with whom one can not 
accomplish much by reasoning with them, and there- 
fore, generally speaking, they should probably simply 
be made to do a thing without appealing to the little 
reason that they do possess. But I never did believe 
that any such structure could stand any longer than 



RELIGION. 227 

they could be blindfolded and kept in ignorance ; and 
this is certainly not very long, for we find that all 
religions based on supernatural principles do not live 
many centuries. 

7. Alexander said, to cut means to untie, in regard 
to the Gordian knot. He knew that with the common 
class of mankind it was not a matter of truth in ob- 
taining their faith and confidence, it was simply a 
matter of telling them that it was so, and therefore 
cutting meant untying. 

The founder of a religion sees the necessity of estab- 
lishing a creed, and, feeling that his aim is for the good 
of mankind, he thinks himself justified to use such 
means as will reach it; knowing the incapacity of the 
ordinary man to reason on a subject so sublime, he 
does not enter into discussion or argument with his 
disciple, who is to become his adherent, as to its wis- 
dom; he simply lays his principles down as establish- 
ed, to be categorically followed and obeyed. 

Furthermore, to give them better entrance, by inspir- 
ing fear and respect, he maintains to the ignorant and 
believing multidude that he receives them through 
divine interposition, which may be true, if taken alle- 
gorically. 

As the decrees of a court of judicature or the man- 
dates of a king are not to be questioned, whether they 
be founded on reason or folly, so does the man of 
superior learning and ability impose and enforce his 
principles. Could the believer look behind the curtain, 
he would wholly reject the theory because of the im- 
position practiced on his understanding ; his disgust at 
having himself regarded as a man incapable of rea- 
soning would be so great that it would now become 



228 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

contempt, which before was credulity, as it would 
have been with the common soldier had he been able 
to see what the word untying meant with Alexander. 
The Eoman church has best understood this means of 
imposing belief, namely, by not letting its adherents 
look where, if they did look, they might see something. 
Such strategies may be justified in politics, where it 
is impossible to leave the reason of an undertaking to 
every subject, because there would be no unity suffi- 
cient to carry out the project, but as to religious and 
moral salvation, the founder of the Christian church 
left it to every man's own conscience. Although he 
might have maintained, that his doctrines were more 
than what was ordinarally human, by this he meant 
that they bore a similarity to divinity ; he used no arts, 
strategies, fraud or imposition to cause adherence; 
force was the last thing that he thought of. In all 
great monarchs, although they demand blind adher- 
ence in matters of politics or war, yet in this the 
subject is a free being; as Frederick the Great said, 
in his country every man could seek his salvation in 
his own manner. 

8. The oracles of the ancients were nothing but 
state machines, as religion is with the moderns ; they 
were undoubtedly instituted to incur respect and obe- 
dience to the state. In other words, the ancients felt 
the same necessity of imposing on the ignorance and 
credulity of the people, in order to control them, as the 
moderns do. 

9. When a man becomes religious, as he calls it, it is 
because he sees social advantages, progress iu busi- 
ness, honor, respect, etc., that follow from it. But tell 



RELIGION. 220 

him that, to be a true Christian, his lot will be some- 
what similar to that of Christ and of his apostles, and 
not even threats of punishment can force him into it. 
Mankind are not sufficiently given to truth and the 
love of virtue to be contented and die for its sake; so 
seldom does this occur, that when it does in fact hap- 
pen, it entitles the hero to immortality. 

To pay church dues without receiving a material 
profit in return, is not sufficient for the pious Sabbath 
observer; from the church dues that he pays, he ex- 
pects the increase of his purse, soft bed, good meals, etc. 
Let Christ see how he carries his heavy cross up steep 
Calvary as best he can. Such a man does well enough 
in his own conceit, but such a man is not a Christian. 

10. Whether the resurrection that Christ preaches 
be not to take away the dread of death that the ordi- 
nary man has? To induce man to die, because this 
life is of no benefit, it might be very probable that 
Christ felt the necessity of giving something for that 
which he was taking away. Or did he mean the res- 
urrection in a physical sense, that is, that all beings 
again come into existence, under another form, as 
soon as they have left a previous one ? 

The man was too honest to be an impostor, and such 
of his teachings as have anything of the supernatural 
about them, supposing that he preached them at all, 
must always be taken in an allegorical sense, which 
he used as the best means of conveying his ideas, as 
he did his parables. 

11. Hume says, that it is more in accordance with 
the moral character of human nature, that his histori 
ans should lie as to the miracles of Christ, than that 



230 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

it is according to the laws of nature that they should 
have happened. This is the best answer that can be 
given. But Dr. Johnson answers that the divine 
power of Christ had been predicted and prophesied; 
by this he would say that not only have we the word 
of the Evangelists for the truth of their occurrence, 
but that the prophets had agreed centuries before that 
they could and would occur. And if the Evangelists can 
be supposed to be prejudiced enough to tell what never 
occurred, they can just as well be supposed to be pre- 
judiced enough to make their description of Christ 
entirely conform with the prophecies, in order to give 
them the better impression of truth, as we see that 
they are always careful to say that the occurrence took 
place just as it had been predicted. 

Excepting to a man fallen soul and body into the 
Jewish religion, the prophets themselves are nothing 
but religious moralists, who might have predicted the 
coming of a Christ to reform and liberate their people, 
who did then, as they do now, stand under the great- 
est contempt of all contemporary nations, and there- 
fore needed a redeemer most of all, and, in an allegor- 
ical sense, they vested him with supernatural powers. 
Besides all this, the Jews themselves maintain that 
the prophecies as told in the Old Testament, as to the 
coming of a Messiah, have not yet been verified. 

The Jews, as a people strictly adhering to their Old 
Testament and their traditions, did entirely right in 
rejecting Christ; he was not Jew sufficiently for them; 
he had too much of the fine moral feeling of the Greek, 
or as a follower of Gaudania would have; he did not 
punish as the Mosaic law enjoined, which he disap- 
proved of; he did not advise wars, seditions and the 
slaughtering of human beings to impose his religion 



RELIGION. 231 

on his fellow men ; he preached resurrection and im- 
mortality, which he probably had through the Greeks 
or Egyptians, for he could not find in the Old Testa- 
ment anything but that man came from nothing and 
would go to nothing, which was abhorrent to him; he 
preached truth whether it was in accordance with the 
Old Testament or Jewish traditions or not, and no- 
where confined his theories to those of the Jews mere- 
ly to be able to have them agree with theirs. 

12. As the Old Testament states it, the Sabbath shall 
be a day of rest, to recover the body from the work of 
the previous days of the week. Sow, as a day of rest, 
as a day the most desirable and welcome, the Mosaic 
law teaches that this day shall be regarded in the 
same manner as if it had something holy in it, and on 
that day man can feast and rest, for which it is more 
used than as a day of worship even by the most 
superstitious fanatic. It was not at all intended to 
convey tlie sense, by the Mosaic law, that this day 
actually had something holy in it. Besides, Saturday 
is the Sabbath of the Bible, and not Sunday, and 
therefore the injunctions of the Bible as to sabbath has 
no meaning as to the first day of the week, but only as 
to the last, because it is the resting day. 

Under such a construction, which is the only correct 
one, the greatest bigot can take as his day of worship 
any other day of the week, wholly disregard Sunday 
as a special day of holiness, and nevertheless be en- 
tirely in conformity with the Bible as to properly 
worshiping his God. 

In this sense it is that Christ regarded the Sabbath, 
as we see that he preached and worshiped on any 
other day of the week as well as the Sabbath; besides 



232 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

his extreme contempt for the Pharisee, whom we have 
still in our midst, and to whom, when he visits his 
house of worship in his frock, under the pretence 
of sanctity and holiness, without daring to give the 
world an account of his moral character, but pre- 
sumptuous enough to denounce the just man who 
honestly plies his trade on a Sunday, Christ would 
apply the epithet that he did to the money-changers 
in the TemjDle, and would reject him with scorn as a 
Pharisee, as one whose religion lies in nothing but 
outward ceremony. Christ himself does not appear 
to have enjoined any particular day as being more 
sacred than the others for religious worship. 

13. The English are the greatest idolaters of the 
Sabbath of any people in existence, to eradicate which 
disgrace from a people of enlightenment, Schopen- 
hauer has justly laid his lash unmercifully on them. 

Even in this country, the states have their so called 
Sunday laws ( a mere dead letter and not observed in 
the cities ); although they may be outwardly based on 
conventional principles, taking Sunday as a day of rest 
and not as arising from any religious influence, yet it 
is this same Sabbath superstition that is in fact the 
cause of their enactment, and, on either principle, are 
entirely derogatory to the spirit of our form of govern- 
ment. By the deception, namely, that it is a day of 
rest, does the church succeed in obtaining from the 
legislature what is an open violation of the constitu- 
tion of the United States. But it is like every measure 
that is based on blind and stupid bigotry and fanatic- 
ism; it leads to a greater violation of public laws and 
an incitement to disorder ; for although the mass of 
mankind are blind and superstitious, and who can 



RELIGION. 233 

be imposed upon as long as anything is not detrimen- 
tal to their private interests, yet let it reach that 
height that it ruins their practical advantages, and in- 
fringes on their rights as free human beings, and any 
laws either legislative or religious to enforce such 
measures, are simply not observed, and if violence be 
used to enforce them, they Trill be resisted by counter- 
force still greater, as would occur at an earlier or 
later date if the state, at the command of the church, 
undertook to enforce strictly the law relating to the 
observance of Sunday. 

14. As the scientist and philosopher look at the 
creation of the universe, namely, that they are brought 
into life, and then destroyed by death ; that it exists 
for the one as well as for the other; that nature has 
her object and not man ; agrees and is consistent with 
the principles of all thinkers of all ages and of all 
countries. But with the Jewish religion God proceeds 
to create all beings, such as birds of the air, beasts of 
the forest and fishes of the sea, etc ; thus far it is all 
well; it shows good workmanship ; then, it seems, 
having exhausted his best material, he makes a being 
which is said to resemble himself, but is in fact one- 
twentieth god and nineteen-twentieths beast and 
brute. 

Finding that there was something wrong, he tries to 
make it good by creating a womb-man, formed partly 
out of this god and beast combined, and partly out of 
nothing, so that what was wanting in the god and 
beast combined, might be set right by the influence of 
this secondary man; but seeing that things were al- 
ways getting worse, he simply had to cease from his 
labors. 



234 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

This is the Jewish account of things. In all coun- 
tries where the Jewish religion is not prevalent, al- 
though they too may have their dogmatic faith, their 
religion, I dare say, is more in accordance with the di- 
rect laws of nature, recognizing the necessary connec- 
tion that there is between man and all the rest of 
nature's productions, and not that man is a self- 
existing being, free from fate by the special will and 
favor of an Almighty, who creates things out of 
nothing, as Schopenhauer laughs at it. 

Neither, besides, do I know of any religion that un- 
dertakes to so particularly describe the creation of the 
universe ; it certainly evinces great ignorance. 

15. The Devil has control of things in this world, as 
Christ knew, and therefore the necessity of his com- 
ing. As for those men who did and may occasionally 
still exist in whom there is true morality, I find that 
they inevitably reject the attributes of an Almighty 
as he is taught by the Christian religion ; they do not 
have faith sufficient in him to rely on to be able to 
save themselves morally. There is therefore no mere 
passive reliance on an Almighty, for a man to be able 
to save himself from perdition. Man should subdue 
the Devil himself, for here lies his only salvation, and 
then he will in fact be a moral being, and will need no 
farther ceremonies. The being of an Almighty is a 
sublime figure, and well adapted for the unthinking 
class, but beneficence in this world is too little seen by 
those who see far, to justify relying on his attributes; 
' he is very beautiful in certain respects, as an exam- 
ple of goodness and greatness, but in practice he is less 
applicable than the Republics of Plato and More are 
in politics. When mankind cease to be beasts, such 



RELIGION. 235 

divine institutions are feasible; but from all present 
appearances, the bad will continue to control the good, 
and every individual should rely on strengthening his 
own resources for evicting the evil genius from his 
heart. It is by virtue of his own struggles that every 
hero is such ; without them all the smiles of a mighty 
monarch could not make him such. And so it is with 
one's own salvation. 

16. The theories of a God and immortality of the 
soul are not at all results of the vulgar mind, whose 
thoughts are fixed to this world; they are the produc- 
tions of men who sought to raise the human family from 
this sinful place of abode to a region of innocence and 
bliss. They took their rise from the fact that some- 
thing greater and better than what was to be found 
here, was wanting for him whose angelical desires 
could not be supplied in this world. The really good 
and great man feels that, as compensation, there ought 
to be some being above earth with whom he can com- 
municate, and some place where the labors that he 
has had for the whole human family in trying to reform 
it, will cease. 

The being of a God with the attributes of omni- 
science, omnipresence and omnipotence, is a thought 
of which the vulgar mind can have no adequate com- 
prehension, and therefore it is to be conveyed to the 
common people in an allegorical sense, as Christ used 
his parables to make his teachings understood. With 
the moralist it serves as a model to be imitated as near 
as the power of man will allow; it is an image of in- 
spiring respect and reverence. 3Ian himself, with all 
his bodily weaknesses of concupiscence, avarice, glut- 
tony, murder, theft, etc., is not a sufficiently moral 



236 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

example; not even Christ would answer the purpose. 
As Socrates had his demon by which to be guided, so 
do mankind require the allegory of a superhuman 
being to direct it. 

17. In consequence of the state, it has become nec- 
essary that every individual should answer for his con- 
duct to a superior, and from this has arisen the idea 
of a God. In the state the subject is answerable to the 
king, and, according to the doctrine of the middle ages, 
when religion dictated principles of state, the king is 
answerable to God. 

It is the same with the words "Maker" and "Cre- 
ator", which have arisen from the fact that man 
himself is a maker and a creator ; man always makes 
an analogy between himself and what is outside of 
himself. For instance, Helvetius says, that when an 
astronomer let a young unmarried woman view in his 
telescope the shadows of the two principal objects in 
the moon, she immediately drew the conclusion that 
they resembled the shadows of two lovers standing 
near each other, and when he let a priest view the 
same shadows, he immediately remarked that they 
resembled the shadows of two steeples of a church. 

18. If all mankind were to simultaneously rise from 
a sleep, having slept out of existence all the ideas, 
knowledge and prejudices that they before professed, 
there would not be a single individual of all of them 
that would, immediately after rising, advance ideas 
of a God or of the immortality of the soul as they ape 
now taught. A mind that is free from all superstitions 
and the dogmas impregnated into it from childhood, 
will draw conclusions only from those things immedi- 



RELIGION. 237 

ately surrounding it. The greatest experience in the 
objects immediately surrounding the greatest mind, 
could not warrant the conclusion of a living God as 
he is taught ; this could, at the best, only be done by 
drawing an analogy between the works of nature and 
those of man. But this even would only prove a 
designer or creator, not a living God. 

Man, as every other being of at least some intelli- 
gence, always conscientiously feels that there must be 
something superior to himself, because he knows that 
he is not the creator of himself. Besides, it is an un- 
erring instinct that makes every animal respect that 
which it feels is superior to itself, even though it be 
against its own inclination. And it is out of this that 
man feels that he owes adoration to a being, call it 
what you will, that is the cause of his own creation, 
and the preserver of his own existence. There has 
no creature yet existed that has not looked with awe 
and reverence to the irresistible power that controls 
us ; a threatening storm at sea will make the knee of 
the roughest sailor bend. 

The two ideas of God and the soul arose in the hu- 
man intellect only after ages of gradual instruction and 
cultivation of the father to the son, and as the mind 
draws its conclusions from that which surrounds it 
and is next to it, so does every child now grow up with 
them, simply taking them for granted, as much as he 
does the fashions, customs and manners of his age and 
country. The church-going of his fellow men, and the 
mere custom of its being generally recognized, are 
powerful enough with the common mind to silence 
any opposition. 

19. Among all nations there are certain rules of life 



238 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

as to religion or morality that are so established from 
length of time, that they- are regarded by such nations 
as divine and supernatural laws, and a violation of 
them meets with the indignation of the whole nation. 
Upon close examination, we generally find that at a 
remote period there existed among such nations a wise 
and learned law-giver, and that either he represented 
that his laws came from the divinity, in order to cause 
greater obedience and veneration, or that the people 
themselves regarded him as something supernatural, 
standing so high above themselves, or, because, as it 
is with wine, the older they grew, the better qualities 
such laws were supposed to possess. 

20. As man and many of the lower animals have a 
ruler, a chief, it is also natural and would follow that 
they should both, even instinctively, have some con- 
ception, more or less strong, of a necessary being 
greater and sublimer than themselves, for they all 
feel that some superior power or other must exist 
to enable themselves to come into existence. 

Now, as civilization became more developed, and 
all the principles of a particular state became more 
subtile from abstract reasoning, this Being in the 
same manner as the earthly ruler, also became more 
sublime in his attributes in the eyes of mankind. 

21. The soul, with its rewards and punishments, is a 
theory to impress on the human mind the fact that the 
good meets with its compensation, and the bad with 
its vengeance, and the latter should therefore be ab- 
horred as the former is to be encouraged ; mere human 
rewards and punishments not being a sufficient incite- 
ment or dread for the practice of the one, or the ab- 



RELIGION. 239 

staining from the other. It shows the actual presence 
of morality. 

These two allegories, of God and the soul, are there- 
fore no more to be scorned or rejected by the most 
atheistical mind, than are the Eepublics of Plato and 
More by the most monarchical statesman. Even 
though, as Kant says, their existence can not in fact 
be demonstrated, they serve as assumptions on which 
to base our theory of morality until a better can be 
established. They were not brought forward by mere 
theologians, and therefore do not belong originally to 
religion, as such, but are the results of minds that 
built higher and firmer than any founder of a mere 
religious creed does; they certainly are nothing that 
the Christain religion can exclusively claim for itself. 

Philosophers who have no religion, as such, gener- 
ally accept, in one sense or other, a God and a soul ; 
they existed and still exist with thinkers of countries 
that have hardly any resemblance in any of their 
moral institutions with the European religions. 

That there should such a resemblance exist in the 
minds of men of different ages and different countries 
as to a God and the soul, arises from the necessity of 
such an idealistic theory on which to base man's moral 
conduct in this world, the religious part being con- 
fined to each particular country as their legal forms 
are. A God, in one form or other, can be said to be as 
necessary for civilized man as a king is, hence the 
same similarity as there is between earthly rulers of 
different nations. 

22. But the evil lies, not in the ideas of God and 
the soul, but in theology that has undertaken to make 
other images of them than those they were originally 



240 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

intended for; the church is continually using the old 
Testament as an authority in preaching that God 
is a jealous god; that he visits with the most brutal 
vengeance any lack of respect towards him as the giv- 
er of everything that is great and good, ( without be- 
ing answerable for the vicious part ), or for the viola- 
tion of any of his commandments ; that when it suits 
his whim and humor, he slays thousands of human 
beings, who are said to be his favorite creatures, with- 
out any cause but that he so desires it, all of which, 
like others of the same kind, are teachings that Christ 
himself never approved, for he accepted God as a be- 
ing that forgives when repentance shows itself, and 
only punishes when there is no hope for repentance. 
Christ forgave his own persecutors and slayers with- 
out its being even solicited. Nothing so angelical is 
to be found in any God that is taken from the Old 
Testament. 

As Christ's own theory of morality has been turned 
and twisted to answer the purposes of daily uses and 
aims, so have the theories of a God and the soul been 
distorted and abused. Not such ideas as the old 
Testament teaches, could Pythagoras, Plato and his 
followers, Aristotle and his followers, not even Christ, 
who was born a Jew, and his true followers, such as 
Paul, have had of the term God ; consequently we 
find that Christ and Paul seem to have entirely ignor- 
ed the Jews 7 Jehovah ; he suited the Jew, but could 
not answer the aims of a man who was something more 
than Jew. 

23. As the Old Testament teaches it, the Jewish 
religion is a very common one; it is fit for animals, 
not men. It says that man, the animal, shall increase 



RELIGION. 24:1 

and multiply, thereby encouraging the beast part of 
man, not his morals. Xo other religion, to my know- 
ledge, teaches the like. It is not astonishing that the 
moral Jesus should reject such a religion. 

24. It must rest on the fact that the Jews in the 
time of Moses stood under the same contempt that 
they do now, that, in order to have some standing as 
human beings, they assumed to themselves the divine 
preference of being the chosen people of God. 

How if God, in the whole list of his human family, 
could make no better choice ( for there must have ex- 
isted nations in those ages that were far superior to 
the Jews), or had no patience to wait until a people 
did come into existence who would be more suited for 
a divine choice, it is bad evidence of the correctness 
of his judgment. 

Properly speaking, the whole religion taught in the 
Old Testament is a religion that was founded exclu- 
sively by Jews, was practiced originally only by 
Jews, and is to-day a religion only fit for Jews, based 
on their particular Jewish nature ; and when other 
races teach and practice it, they are simply teaching 
and practicing common Jewism, as Schopenhauer 
says 

Inasmuch as they had founded this religion, they 
had a right to make it suitable to their own vanity, 
and, of course, to assume all divine preference for 
themselves, which, when we consider the egotism of 
man, is no more than other nations, in their religion, 
assumed for themselves, only in other respects. Their 
Jehovah owed his existence to them, as Schopenhauer 
says, and consequently they had a right to expect his 
special benefaction in their favor. 
16 



242 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

25. By God they are the chosen people ; by men 
they are the rejected people. How the divine mind 
and the human mind do disagree about this ! 

26. For man to possess immortality of the soul and 
all the other animals to be without it, is, one of the 
greatest pieces of vanity that man could have as- 
sumed. Theology admits that the whole rest of cre- 
ation is as well the work of God as man is, and that 
everything created was so done out of the wisdom of 
God ; then the existence of the most insignificant 
creature is of as much importance to itself as that of 
the highest is to itself, Man in his intellectual qual- 
ities does not surpass the dog to such an extent as to 
give him this preference, or to confer attributes upon 
him that his own dog, from the honesty and fidelity 
that he bears to his master, is as well entitled to 
share. 

It has not yet been demonstrated satisfactorily 
that this separate existence, the animal, has now be- 
come endowed with such attributes as to be entitled 
to possess immortality, which is said to have become 
a part related to the animal, merely because the ani- 
mal has chauged from the brute into the man. The 
crop must certainly be the same as the seed. Immor- 
tality can very well be attributed to that soul or spirit 
which creates and which is the vital part, the very 
essence of every being, but to say that this soul 
became a relative part of man only since he has 
become such, is drawing an unwarranted line of dis- 
tinction between man and the lower animal. 

Transformation is always going on and never 
ceases, but it takes a great period of time for a race 
of animals to be transformed into another race ; and 



RELIGION. 243 

it then, at the most, only assumes a higher stage as 
an animal, but it is still the original substance that 
has undergone the change. 

In all our changes we reach the highest stage when 
we become man, but this only in regard to the in- 
tellect, it having improved in size and quality as 
compared to the lower animal. Man, as every being, 
is immortal as to the spirit, Kant's "Ding an sich" 
and Schopenhauer's "Will," and has therefore always 
existed and always will exist, only under different 
forms ; and it is this immortality that has given rise 
to the soul's immortality in the minds of men ; but 
what may have been understood in the beginning to 
mean this universal immortality, has, by degrees, be- 
come to be confined to an individual soul, from a 
perverse construction of the works of philosophers or 
from the theory of metempsychosis. And as every- 
thing that we now do will affect us in the future in 
this life, so all the acts of this life will affect us after 
death, because our existence before our birth, at 
present and in the future is but one. In this sense 
all things are immortal. 

27. If the salvation of the soul of a good man after 
death were as unequivocal as the theologian main- 
tains, there would be no need for the fear of death, 
but, on the other hand, such a man would regard the 
moment of his departure from this world of misery 
and wickedness as the most desirable of all his exist- 
ence. 

All preaching of immortality, however grand and 
sublime it may be to a being of a higrh moral charac- 
ter, is not sufficient to eradicate the fear of death 
from the common mind. A man at the point of death 



244 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

can console himself that he will after his death be as 
much as he was before birth, as Schopenhauer says ; 
besides, he will not then be subject to the ills of a 
being of intelligence. This theory of indestructibility 
is a truth that applies to every being or creature in 
the universe, and is not a point dependent upon a 
particular religious creed, and directly contradicted 
by another. With religion, a man whose soul accord- 
ing to his own creed will be without doubt saved, is f 
according to another creed, entirely beyond redemp- 
tion, and thus religious people at the point of death 
are in a state of contradiction, caused by theologians 
quarreling on a subject that they know nothing 
about. 

28. The mere fact that man fears death, and at the 
hour of death becomes serious, is no evidence what- 
ever that it rests upon the principle that in another 
world he will have to account for his conduct in this 
world. The lower animal resists and fears death as 
well as man ; it is also true in regard to the infant, 
yet it has no conception of what is right and what is 
wrong, and therefore has nothing to fear; and if 
man's ideas are not innate, the infant can have no 
thought whatever of immortality. Besides, the man 
whose life has left behind it as unspotted a character 
as it is possible for a man to leave, will, with all his 
might and power, resist death, as well as the worst 
man does. 

The fear of death is because the individual feels 
that the body is about to be dissolved. Every body, 
animate and inanimate, resists a dissolution of its 
parts, because it is upon the principle that all parts 



RELIGION. . 245 

are held together and refuse to be severed, that the 
body can exist at all and have a form. 

The non-willingness of death is love, for this is a 
connection, either of the parts of one's own body or 
of the bodies of two lovers; they have an attachment 
for each other ; this attachment is the very cause of 
their preservation. The two bodies of lovers is but 
one body, and their issue is the succession of this 
body. Man and wife are very properly called one. 
The disagreements that occur between man and wife, 
are not those of two bodies, but the disagreements of 
the different parts of one body with each other, as it 
is the case with its different parts during sickness of 
a single body. It is upon this principle, namely, that 
all bodies, to be able to preserve their existence, 
resist a dissolution of their parts, that two lovers can 
not be separated. 

Love, either itself or that existing between two 
bodies, is the contraction of the body or bodies ; it is 
voluntary. Death is the dissolution of the body ; it 
is involuntary. The mind is incapaple of seeing any 
other existence than the present one, and therefore 
fears that by death it may become wholly extin- 
guished. The wise man is not quite so blind, and will 
therefore not show such great resistance, but will, in 
many cases, even bid it welcome. And as existence 
has only propagation or self-preservation in view, 
evidently the eunuch or the old man whose power of 
propagation has left him, will not resist death as 
much as a man will who is in his prime. 

What tends to keeping the body united, as eating 
or the taking of medicine, for instance, is done volun- 
tarily, whilst everything that tends to the dissolution 
of the body, as hungering or receiving a wound, for 



246 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

instance, is involuntary. This at the same time 
shows the close resemblance there is between the 
intellect, which resists death — dissolution — and the 
adhering parts of a body, animate or inanimate. 

29. As it is impossible to say why man should at all 
be born, so it is impossible to say why he should 
resist death. As it has never been maintained that 
it was a religious principle that produced him, so 
neither can it be maintained that it is because of 
any religious principle that he fears death. 

30. Schopenhauer thinks it peculiar that a man 
should not be permitted to preach and teach what he 
himself does not practice. He who has practiced the 
different vices, is most capable of teaching their evil 
results ; and especially if he has ceased to practice 
evil, there is no better teacher. Yet for a man to 
tell others not to do what he himself continually does, 
has the appearance of being hypocrisy, which is still 
more dangerous. If his vices be such that his nature 
wall not allow him to separate himself from them, 
why should not yet such a man, who is so thoroughly 
conscious of their bad influences, be allowed to w r arn 
the rest of mankind to shun them ? A virtuous girl's 
being warned by an old bawd of the evil and vicious 
consequences of an adulterous life, will have more 
effect to make such a life abhorrent to such a girl 
than all religious threats can. Or how could a boy, 
having the inclination to drink, find a better means 
of being w r arned against its evil consequences than 
the instructions of an habitual drunkard ? 

The objection rests on the principle that practical 
influences are greater than those of theory ; a man's 



RELIGION, 247 

teaching therefore is, unless the contrary appear, 
mere mockery when contradicted by his practice, and 
in this sense the objection is well founded. But if 
the moral teaching be a result of the conviction that 
the practice is an evil, and if the evil-doer do not 
cease from his bad practices merely because it is now 
too late, and there be a genuine sincerity in him for 
the welfare of mankind, in warning them against it, 
such teachings can not too often be laid before youth 
that is still inexperienced in such a field. Consid- 
ering, besides, how imperfect human nature is, a 
particular failing in the character of a man, who may 
be otherwise a moralist, does not deprive him of this 
term; such a man even generally judges such a 
failing stricter than the world itself does, and with 
his ability how fit is he not now to handle the subject! 

31. The great dread and fear that the ordinary part 
of mankind have for death arises from their ignorance 
to see that when the body dies, the brain, which is 
dependent on the body for its functionary parts, also 
dies, and is therefore not capable of comprehending 
the fact of death. People mourn over a dead body 
as if it were the individual himself, forgetting that 
his brain has ceased to exist, and that, therefore, he 
is not an object of sorrow and grief, because it was 
only by virtue of his brain that he was at all an 
object of love and affection; his body, consequently, 
is nothing but a mass of unliving flesh, in a state of 
preparation for worms. 

The common man has his mind fixed on nothing 
but his body ; he does not know that to exchange 
this life for an existence that lias not the intelligence 
to see the evils necessarily connected with our pres- 



248 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

ent existence, must be an advantage, in the same 
manner as sleep is if there be no dreams. 

Although great men seeing that death deprives 
man of his earthly burdens, yet do not hasten death 
any more than they do sleep, letting the laws of 
nature have their course, and do not rebel against a 
decree ordered by more than human intelligence; 
but they do teach that, as we must live as long as the 
desire is so (otherwise the desire would not exist), 
on the same principle must we accept death when 
it does come, teaching obedience in the one case as 
well as in the other. 

32. Man has no right to suppose that this world is 
where he belongs, and that therefore he must never 
consent to leaving it; the time passed before his 
birth and the time that is to run after his death, 
throws his insignificant three score and ten years 
into nothing. Man is therefore but a sojourner in 
this world, a visitor, to see and hear the little good 
that is in it, and then to travel farther. As when he 
is on an ordinary visit, he holds himself ready to start 
at any moment, so in this life, his baggage should 
always be packed, his fare paid for a journey that 
takes him to a better home of peace and rest. 

33. What man wants is not what cannot be demon- 
strated, but rules and maxims, so that he may be 
able to lead a moral and upright life. The theologian 
undertakes to make his hearers intelligible on the 
subject of a God and the immortality of the soul, 
and thereby thinks to make a moral being of man. 
When Christ's own teachings are carefully consid- 
ered, it will be seen that this is more than he himself 



religion. 249 

undertook to do. He assumed a God and immortality, 
and what lie particularly meant by either, he was too 
honest to presume to undertake to tell us ; he seems 
to have merely taken them for granted; in regard to 
their particular principles, he left it to every man to 
draw his own conclusions from the circumstances 
surrounding him. 

Christ's mission was to make man a better being, 
and he therefore taught him moral conduct, and 
knew that, when a man is moral, this is all that can be 
demanded of him, and that salvation would follow as 
a matter of course, even though the individual have 
no belief in matters of any particular religion. He 
evidently regarded any particular religion as only 
accidental, dependent on nationality, etc. 

34. The coming of Christ was the reforming of man, 
and so was he in earnest about his object that he took 
every insult, indignity and abuse that was offered 
him, and eventually even gave up his life for it. This 
is why he receives sublime honors; it gives his char- 
acter something of the divine; it is unlike that of the 
rest of mankind, and therefore common and credulous 
minds actually attribute supernatural powers to him ; 
but he himself always reminds his hearers that he is 
but a man, and therefore subject to the evils of the 
world, aware only of a superiority of intellect and 
morality in himself. 

The modern theologian does not keep this object in 
view, and thus lead his flock; besides being a spirit- 
ual adviser, he wants to be a metaphysician, logician, 
politician, man of society, servant of Mammon, even 
a lover, a propagator, forgetting what Christ really 
was and what his object is, by throwing his godlike 



250 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

teachings into the same pot with the nastiness of 
this world. Let the theologian first set an example 
in this, and then teach his followers to cease whoring, 
stealing, cheating, gaming,- drunkenness, maligning, 
backbiting and all the other evils to which human 
nature is heir, and when he has performed this, he has 
assisted his master, and has not been an obstacle to 
him as he is now. In this sense the objection not to 
teach what is not practiced, is well founded. Gold- 
smith's Vicar of Wakefield is a beautiful example of 
what a practical Christian shepherd should be. 

35. Morality is of itself godliness ; and, therefore, 
does a man possess morality, he is godly. 

36. A man who leaves this world with an unblem- 
ished character, need have no fear for his soul, no 
matter what his religion may be, or whether he had 
any at all, such as is called religion. In such a being 
all has been accomplished that the highest institution 
of God or of man can claim. It is not religion that is 
the cause of a peaceful state of mind in a moral being; 
it is the consciousness that he has done no wrong; the 
culprit who has confessed his sins and repented, and 
has become an undeviating devotee of a particular 
creed, does not, in spite of his religion, enjoy the same 
peaceful state of mind that the moral man does, who 
has no religion ; for, although he may feel that he has 
now accomplished everything that can be demanded 
of him, and to which repentance it is in fact that he 
owes the peaceful state that he does enjoy, and not to 
religion, he still feels that the wrongs that he has com- 
mitted can never be recalled ; he therefore withdraws 
from the face of the world. His repentance is the next 



RELIGION. 251 

best thing that he could do as a guilty man. In the 
case of Kance, religion never could eradicate his sins 
from his memory ; his mortification makes one shud- 
der to think of it; it excites our pity for him ? and was, 
simply, uncalled for. Of course, to prevent sin from 
coming on shows greater wisdom than to resist it 
when it has been brought on, but to turn against the 
monster and show such fight as actually to overcome 
him, certainly evinces great heroism, so great that it 
is of itself sufficient to quiet any conscientious scru- 
ples that might otherwise ruin the complete happiness 
of a man's life, even though the unfortunate victim 
himself, to whom the evil was done, can not be fully 
restored. 

37. What is merely moral influence is very unrelia- 
ble; its force lasts only so long as the individual sees 
his personal advantages in it; then lie again falls into 
his natural course, and this no religion on earth can 
prevent. 

38. We can very well reprove a highly intellectual 
man for being superstitious, because we know that 
his morality can exist without religion as it is. But 
as concerns the multitude, who are of such limited in- 
telligence that they must reach in an indirect way 
what the wise man reaches in a direct way, supersti- 
tion and deception in religion generally have in all 
ages been more or less practiced. When superstition 
is connected with morality, the intellect becomes so 
enclowded that it is incapable of seeing and compre- 
hending the principles on which morality is based; 
hence any man that practices it, thereby lowers his 



252 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

intellectual powers, or evinces that lie has no intellect, 
which latter is generally the case with such a man. 

39. Just a little patience, and the fellow that you 
see at the head of politics or religion, and with a loud 
voice, requires but a short time to be thrown from his 
prominence, and have his mouth stopped. Everything 
that you see before you that pretends to religion, poli- 
tics or morality, is nothing but confusion and delusion; 
it has no intrinsic worth. 

When I look around me on this day (Easter Sunday), 
and see the efforts that are being made for religious 
worship, with the bells ringing, all to celebrate the 
suffering, the meekness, the goodness and the great- 
ness of the founder of the Christian religion, it appears 
to me, that after having experienced so many ruinous 
lessons (of accepting the bad and rejecting the good), 
the time has at last arrived at that stage of civiliza- 
tion and humanity when it is actually the intention of 
mankind to be humble and moral. 

But when I look around again, and see under what 
circumstances this is all done, what the object is that 
is in view, I find that, in fact, there is no genuine love 
for Christ and his moral teachings; that the attending 
religious worship to hear the hallejujahs and a ser- 
mon that is interesting as a pastime, connected with 
the scenery there displayed, all of which makes hearts 
mirthful and glad, and the social and business stand- 
ing that a recognition and practice of religion give a 
man, are all the cause of these demonstrations; in 
short, that it is only the valuable self that is continu- 
ally kept in view in such matters. 

And if a man occasionally be found who, from the 
sincerity of his heart, would like to have this grand 



RELIGION. 253 

structure of Christ's restored to its original simplicity, 
any action in this direction on his part, will immediate- 
ly be voted down. It is in this, as it is of everything 
that is great and good 5 Schopenhauer says that when- 
ever a great thing is undertaken, something that 
would elevate the human race, soon the rabble, the 
vulgar, this over-powering majority in the human 
family, get control over it, and then farewell to all its 
greatness. Nothing can avoid this state of things; 
therefore Quand le bon ton arrive, le bon sens se re- 
tire. 

The rich pretend to be Christians to make it appear 
that they possess good judgment; the poor are Chris- 
tians because their bread depends upon it. The for- 
mer Christ himself would have driven from his temple 
as thieves, and the latter would have been spared by 
his mercy only. 

40. In religion neither the shepherd nor the sheep 
sees, that if the latter possess no morality, all the 
efforts of the former can not save him from perdition, 
because if the character be bad, it is bad even though 
it do not disclose itself in outward acts; the most that 
can be done is, through influence or fear, to make the 
adherent conduct himself so that he do not violate 
any of the laws of the land or of society. And herein 
lies the theologian's vocation. 

A man who feels the necessity of continually attend- 
ing church, and requires the spiritual counsel and 
advice of his parson, lays himself open to the contempt 
of the world as possessing neither intelligence nor vir- 
tue. A man can call in a physician or a surgeon to 
cure his disease or dress his wound, because in that 
he can frankly confess that he is ignorant, without 



254 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

any detriment to bis character, but what is a man who 
makes no claims to intelligence and virtue, the only 
two characteristics that separate man from the brute? 
And though he praise God and sing the Psalms of 
David every hour of the twenty -four in the day, is he 
a safe man with whom to trust your wife or your purse f 
]N*o more can his immoral nature be altered than that 
a physician can cure a complaint of the body that is 
fixed there and become a part of it. 

41. Freedom of thought is a blessing not alone for 
the free-thinker, but it is as well a blessing for the 
adherents and followers of any religious creed or 
denomination ; by it alone is every man at liberty to 
pursue such a religious course as his conscience may 
dictate. Were there no freedom of thought, as soon 
as any particular creed obtained the majority in num- 
ber or had the power, all the other creeds would 
be tyrannized, and, probably, eventually completely 
rooted out. 

The theologian, who sees no farther than to the 
boundaries of his own well-paying trade, does not 
know that the prohibiting of free thought, that he 
would have the infidel or atheist, as he calls him, de- 
prived of, would sooner or later also deprive him of 
X>ursuing the religious dictates of his own conscience, 
and, what is still dearer to hiin, of his own daily bread. 

As long as it does not lead to disorder or anarchy, 
every man should be allowed to pursue his own 
course of moral or religious conviction. Such was 
the political maxim of Frederick the Great, and such 
I find to have been the political maxim of every great 
Frederick, that loved his people and sought their 
welfare. Nothing but a monarch subject to the influ- 



. RELIGION. 255 

ences of a religious gown or a petticoat, will interfere 
with the inward thoughts of any man as long as they 
are not detrimental to his state. And yet it is this 
class of nionarchs, this vulgus of mankind, with noth- 
ing to boast of but their prerogative right to the 
throne, these defensores fidei, as they are termed and 
call themselves, that the church has to parade its 
power with, kings on whom a Plato, a Spinoza, a 
Kant or a Schopenhauer would not clean his feet. 
Not freedom of thought and religious worship are 
what the church counsels them, but compulsion and 
absolute obedience to the principles of their own 
creed. 

The grandest monarchical power that a king can 
boast of, is when his political acts are approved by the 
greatest thinkers of his time, and to obtain this is by 
letting the subject exercise those rights that are his 
by the grace of both God and man, as well as de- 
manding obedience from him by virtue of this grace. 
A king is nothing but a sublime servant; thereon his 
high throne he is to overlook and superintend his 
whole kingdom, and see the different and various 
wants of his whole subjects; that is what he is there 
for. The subject is not for the king, but the king is 
for the subject; but generally the ruler mistakes the 
object for the means and the means for the object. 
This duty great kings see into, and therefore, at the 
end of their political career, their only boast is, like 
that of a dutiful servant, that they have consulted the 
interests of and labored industriously for the welfare 
of their people. Under such monarchs alone can 
every religion, art, science and philosophy prosper. 

42. The theory of Bacon that the pursuit in philos- 
ophy will in the end lead to the knowledge of God, 



256 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

and that philosophy is the handmaid to religion, have 
both already been shown by Schopenhauer and other 
thinkers to be fundamentally false. 

Philosophy existed long before the Christian relig- 
ion took its rise; in fact Christ's God-head and his 
immortality of the soul are both supposed to have 
been derived through the Greeks and the Egyptians ; 
besides, there is the same moral philosophy as ours 
with all other civilized nations that have no Christian 
religion, or no religion resembling it. But what is 
most striking of all, is, that Christ, through John the 
Baptist and his followers, is supposed to have been 
instructed in the teachings of Gaudama, whose doc- 
trines are maintained to be entirely atheistical, and 
therefore to be exclusively resting on moral prin- 
ciples. 

It is impossible to imagine that any people would 
make a leap directly from bruteism to the idea of a 
God or of the soul, before having experienced the 
minor premises that alone can lead to this conclusion; 
this would be leaving a void between the brute state 
and the divine state, that religion is unable to account 
for, excepting by answering that it is through inspir- 
ation — a dishonest and tricky evasion of the main 
point at issue, merely to avoid being silenced. 

From the fact that philosophy and the sciences 
civilize man, he gradually established principles of a 
supreme Being and immortality; and in proportion 
as the human intellect developed itself with a partic- 
ular people, its belief in a God or the soul also 
developed itself. So we find that such thoughts as 
barbarous or wild nations have of God are derived 
through natural objects that surround them, such as 
the sun, trees, rocks, etc. To comprehend anything 



RELIGION. 257 

like Plato's or Christ's God or the soul, requires an 
idea, which is a result of the training and developing 
of the human intellect, requiring thousands of years. 
If it were true that religion had to be the founder 
of philosophy, men who have no religious belief, in 
the common acceptation of the word, would have no 
morals. 

43. But now comes Kant, as the necessary counter- 
part to the theory of a God-head and the soul, and 
shows us that they can not be demonstrated by rea- 
son a priori, and thus throws the whole fabric, as a 
reality, over-board. And if he does admit that God's 
non-existence can also not be demonstrated, Schopen- 
hauer maintains that this was a mere concession in 
him, arising out of fear. But may he not be right in 
this ! 

It must now be accepted by every man in his own 
conscience, whether the imagination or imperfect and 
immature knowledge of a more or less wild and sav- 
age people, based on the general observations of all 
thiugs in the universe, be a reliable principle for the 
demonstration of the actual existence of God and the 
soul ; or whether the result of the thinking of gigantic 
Intellects be not a more consistent authority for the 
origin of these two ideas. 

We know as a fact that our moral and civilized 
system is at its highest in men of the greatest 
intellect, even the Christian religion boasting of 
its superiority, which is a result of this intellect, 
over the religion of barbarous nations, and we must 
therefore accept as its guide what are its great- 
est productions. This is what we do do by letting the 
works of the greatest thinkers become standard by 



258 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

handing them down to posterity. Naturally, if God 
and the soul took their rise from the intellect, they 
are also in the the mean time always subject to it, 
and it is therefore as consistent to say where their 
boundary is, as it is consistent to say where their 
origin is. 

Although philosophers may have an Idea of God or 
the soul, and which, as such idea, is very consistent 
ivith man's moral conduct, yet I find that they always 
break through the boundaries of what is mere theolo- 
gy. As they take the perfectly wise man and the 
perfect Christ, both of whom never existed, to have 
the ordinary man model himself by, so do they find 
the need of having a Being by whom these should 
have been modeled, and that is God, whether he can, 
any more than the two former, be demonstrated or 
not. 

The soul is the imperishability of all things. Cer- 
tainly philosophers believe in immortality. 

44. Where great men have written, and at the same 
time had to stand in awe of the religion of their coun- 
try, their thoughts were maimed to such an extent 
that that which otherwise might have been a work of 
enlightenment, turns out to be an abortion. Eeligion 
requires that its adherents be adherents both accord- 
ing to the spirit and the letter, and any violation or 
digression will be met with expulsion. A writer and 
supporter of religion will reject everything that is dif- 
ferent from his own religion, and immediately brand 
it as paganism, forgetting entirely that all his theories 
of a God-head, immortality of the soul and the great- 
est principles of morality come from the pagans, com- 
pared to whose great writers, he himself is nothing. 



RELIGION. 259 

And I therefore believe, that, had not the great writers 
of antiquity already a firm footing in the minds of men 
when Christianity took its rise in Europe, its defend- 
ers would not have tolerated them, and certainly not 
introduced them into their universities, so strong is 
the religious zeal, even as against the highest wisdom, 
merely because it does not regulate itself according to 
its doctrines. 

45. Christ taught a creed, but no creed that required 
the follower to observe particular formalities. Differ- 
ent minds will arrive at the same truth by different 
ways. The mind can never be compelled and forced 
against its own natural inclination; it will therefore 
pursue its own course, although apparently it may fol- 
low particular religious forms. 

Besides, the founder of a religion may himself have 
been in error, because his creed was more or less 
based on prejudice and individual benefit, which is 
generally the case, and the consequence is, that his 
follower will fall into the same error, if he be confined 
to particular forms. A follower of a religion can only 
then have a full scope of thought when the creed that 
he adheres to is a, result also of his own thinking, 
which is seldom the case. 

So far is theology itself from possessing original 
thinkers that can be considered standard writers, that 
theologians are compelled to resort to pagan and infi- 
del writers of original thought to find some mention of 
God and the soul, and if anything relating to them 
can be found in such writers, they invoke them as 
authorities, although the authors themselves probably 
meant by these ideas something entirely different 
from what theologians mean by them; or, if they had 



260 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

a theological tenor at all about them, the use of them 
was probably a mere condescension, acting under the 
influence of the times. 

Or it happens, that that part of the works of great 
writers that do make mention of theological principles- 
that are unfounded, is rejected and ignored by men 
who may be their followers in other respects; for 
instance, I can admire Dr. Johnson's moral senti- 
ments, but in his fanaticism, I regard him as nothing 
but what Voltaire regarded him , "a superstitious dog." 

46. Neither the Christian nor any other religion has 
ever had, nor ever will have, a true philosophical 
Genius to follow it from beginning to end. A religion, 
as such, is simply inconsistent with free thought. 

But the moral teachings of Christ being consistent 
and in accordance with the philosophy of the Genius, 
he boasts of being a follower of Christ as he may boast 
that he is a follower of Plato or of Kant, and seeing 
that his own moral principles agree better with those 
of Christ than those of religion, his claims to him are 
better founded, than those of the theologian. 

47. In politics any form of government can be im- 
posed on the multitude, even when it will throw them 
into a complete subjection, simply because they are 
unfit to reason on principles of state, in which they 
daily live and whose workings they continually see. 
Now how much more so are they not unfit to reason 
on matters of God and the soul! Therefore, that 
idolatry should prevail with certain nations, is not at 
all astonishing. In the Christian religion itself there 
are principles that are nothing but idolatrous. The 
veneration paid to the Bible is as great a piece of 



RELIGION. 261 

idolatry as that paid to the Koran by the Moham- 
medans is idolatry. 

Take any article, for instance, a staff, and tell the 
vulgar that a certain saint, philosopher or great 
statesman was, during his lifetime, in the habit of 
using it, and it is the easiest thing to get the ignorant 
human family actually to pay divine honors to it. 

This is not all ; so can the ordinary man be made a 
dupe of, that if the imposition be headed by a man of 
any public authority at all, he will actually worship a 
man that has been the cause of the greatest atrocity, 
brutality or treachery to his fellow men, a man whom 
the law ought to dispose of in the most summary 
manner. 

Fetichism, for one who believes that every work 
that he sees is the work of a supreme Being, is no 
more out of order than to worship the Christian cross 
because it is the representative of Christ and his 
church ; so is every creation in the universe a very fit 
object through whose instrumentality to communicate 
with that being, whose attributes are so sublime that 
direct communication cannot be had with him. 

The crude and barbarous nations all have a simpler 
mode of religious worship ; the intercourse with their 
God is more direct; it is built upon principles that 
are drawn from the direct works of nature as they 
behold her, and not encumbered and obscured by 
school divinity or sophistry. 

In former centuries (and it is still done by egotistic 
and bigoted theologians and people whose knowledge 
of mankind is confined to their own parish), it was 
the custom to laugh at everything that was Asiatic. 
But, as I said, only give the matter a start, and there 
will be no lack of followers, even of that at which 



262 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

twelve months before they laughed. For instance, 
the religious aud philosophy of the Buddhist and 
Brahmin, which to the theologian is nothing but idol- 
atry, are receiving a degree of attention from learned 
and thinking men in Europe and America that has 
nothing to equal it in all the missionaries that they 
have sent to Asia. The converts that Buddha makes 
here, are the thinkers, who seek it themselves ; the 
converts that the missionaries make there, are the 
illiterate and unthinking class, who are talked and 
persuaded into it by the missionary who is paid for it, 
whilst the learned Orientalist treats him and his 
whole theory with contempt. 

48. Had the Christian religion continued in its sim- 
ple mode of worship as it took its rise, there would 
have been no need of a reformation ; but as ignorance 
and credulity increased after the fall of the Eoman 
Empire, it always became more of a means of subjec- 
tion of the people, and, to reach this, there was no 
better way than by artificial and forced ceremonies 
of religious worship. The mode and manner in which 
the Christian religion is taught and impressed on its 
adherents is nothing consistent with the plain and 
simple way of preaching and admonishing that Christ 
himself resorted to. Every thing that is great and 
good is such in its own simplicity ; but as soon as it 
requires the aid of art, and being continually propped 
up by subtility in terms, and resorting to wars, then 
it looses its own stamp of sincerity and truth, and, 
like everything that is false, eventually falls. That 
very openness and frankness of Christ's teaching is the 
cause of its whole grandeur and beauty, and strikes 
the most atheistical mind with a certain awe and rev- 



RELIGION. 263 

ereuce of the god-like intentions of its founder. 
Christ himself never resorted to disputations on his 
religion; he taught it as a doctrine to be received or 
rejected on the strength of its own representation ; 
whoever could not see that such a religion was not 
consistent with human reason and morality, was 
allowed to reject it; he considered that it was not a 
subject of arguing pro and contra. Besides, I suppose 
he regarded the common people as being entirely un- 
fit to determine for themselves the merits of such a 
sublime subject, and therefore all metaphysical specu- 
lations on it should be entirely withheld from them. 

49. The religious part of a man does not take its 
beginning in him until he is born ; it must be preached 
into him, and if he be born where there is no such 
preaching, he will have no religion. 

But the moral part of a man is already in the blood 
that the father deposits in the mother's womb, and the 
child's moral character is therefore formed before it 
leaves its mother, and has the stamp of a moral or 
immoral being fixed in it before it is old enough to 
listen to religious instruction. 

50. It is also true that it is of no matter how differ- 
ent the religion of one country may be from that of 
other countries, yet the morality of these different 
countries is all the same. It is evident from this alone 
that morality has the same origin, no matter in what 
region of the world it may be. If the morality of a par- 
ticular people were owing to the character of their 
religion, the characteristics of their religion would be 
evident in every feature of its morality, and the result 
would be that the teachings of the most moral Bud- 



2GJ: A TREATISE ON MAN. 

dhist would not suit the character of the European, 
which in, fact, they do, and the writers of the Old Tes- 
tament being Jews, their moral teachings would not 
at all be consistent with the morality of Christians. 

51. It seems that all the arguments of men whose 
morality is not based on religion, can never completely 
annihilate and overturn superstition in the minds of 
the vulgar, who never think, and therefor seem to re 
quire superstition or something like it, to impose on 
their ignorance ; for even if the state established reg- 
ular schools of morality for the people in general, it is 
a question whether they would not in the end also fall 
into a misuse and abuse from the fact alone that it 
would be difficult to find men who would be able and 
upright enough to answer its purposes, as it is verjr 
difficult to find men who are able and upright enough 
to preach and practice the religion of Christ as he 
preached and practiced it ; to prevent this might be 
as difficult a task as it is to prevent a republican form 
of government from being transferred into a monarchy; 
for mankind will eventually abandon the simple and 
pure mode of worship in morals as they abandon the 
simple and pure mode of politics, and resort to pomp 
and ceremony in both. But as man naturally comes 
back to the shortest and best route, after having found 
that the man in the pulpit and the man on the throne 
were men like himself, and no more in their position 
by the grace of God than he himself is in his work- 
shop, it is perfectly consistent with the rights of human 
nature as civilized beings, to again make the attempt 
and keep making it, since otherwise both institutions 
would eventually enslave man. Eeligion and the 
state require a purging as well as the body ; sometimes 



RELIGION. 265 

their condition is so filthy that nothing but a revolu- 
tion can bring either of them back to its original 
purity. 

52. It shows a lack of thought to suppose that the 
age of reason has or ever will come, and that man- 
kind will be completely free from ignorance and 
superstition. Truth can only expect to find hospit- 
able shelter in the quarters of the philosopher, not in 
palaces, not in churches. There are certain ages in 
the history of mankind in which there are more sages 
than in other ages, but no age in which there are 
more sages than asses. 

53. Kant demonstrates no particular theory of the 
universe ; he merely shows that things are merely ap- 
pearances; that their original cause of existence can 
not be demonstrated. Kant, knowing very well that 
the solution of the problem of the universe was to be 
a mystery to man, does not undertake to impose on the 
reader a theory of it that is merely a chimera of his 
brain ; but like a great thinker he proceeds to show 
to what extent the human reason can reach. And as 
his object is only to show the capacity of the human 
intellect, all theories and speculations on the uni- 
verse, as to its original cause, can very well exist, as 
long as they confine themselves within these bounda- 
ries — so far as he is concerned. 

Schopenhauer thinks Kant to be the most original 
thinker that ever lived. I believe also, that no think- 
er, either of antiquity or of modern times, has done so 
much to arrive at what the real capacity of the 
human intellect is, as Kant has; he has set a barrier, 
and thereby prevented those illusions and chimeras 



266 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

that every j)hilosopher is otherwise apt to fall into 
from prejudice or otherwise. No bird undertakes to 
fly further than his wings will allow. It is only roan 
that has assumed to himself the power of answering 
all things. And now to have this honest and unas- 
suming thinker step forward and forever put an end 
to this sublime conceit, which, especially, Schopen- 
hauer says, he has done as to the church, has made 
the most men reject his theory, merely because it was 
detrimental to their personal interests or their preju- 
dice, which was too great before to enable them to 
see straight. But no man who has any pride in the 
proper conduct of his mental powers as well as the 
proper conduct of his morals, can refuse to Kant the 
reward of having led man back to his natural mode 
of thinking, unshackled by school divinity and prac- 
tical superstition, to which every man is more or less 
chained from infancy, at least in this part of the 
world. 

54. Schopenhauer's Will in nature, with Kant's 
theory (they being the same), has always appeared to 
me to be some explanation of the universe, so far, I 
mean, as any is possible. It is free from religious 
prejudice and personal motives, both men pursuing 
their course with a true philosophical candor and 
earnestness, out of pure love to truth and the enlight- 
enment of mankind; and in spite of their great claims 
to some of the greatest, probably actually to the great- 
est, human intellectuality, both are just enough to 
admit the limits and boundaries of their thought. 
But it is not so with other theories of the universe in 
general, for we find that they are always more or less 
superinduced either by religious, national or other 



RELIGION. 267 

prejudices that makes tkeni entirely unsavory to a 
man reared under different customs and manners. 

55, In fact we find something original in the nieta, 
physical theory of every great thinker, which seems 
to want to creep out and make itself known, but the 
dread for the majority, whose very brutal outward 
appearance is almost enough to scare into silence the 
lips of men, who, in their humanity and intellectuality, 
are more entitled to associate with gods, has prevent- 
ed the birth of many a thought that would otherwise 
have ennobled the race. There is, it appears, an 
intention in nature not to allow the greatest civiliza- 
tion to become absolutely predominant. Schopen- 
hauer thinks that the human race has reached its 
highest stage. I do not see that civilization and 
morality have any better hold on man now than they 
had two or three thousand years ago. The wave of 
ignorance will again drown mankind in its depth, as 
it did in the middle ages, and in that manner we 
make a step backward as soon as we make a step 
forward. The brutal religious fanaticism of these 
ages is as apparent in single individuals, even of this 
enlightened century, as it was in the middle ages; 
but science has so completely separated and divided 
the different creeds that not one of them singly is 
sufficient to become complete master. There is not a 
creed or faith in modern times that would not resort 
to every available means to cause adherence and be- 
lief, and, to this end, threaten with death and bodily 
torture any subject who would dare to raise his head 
against its religious zeal, were it within its power. 
We find that all great men, although their works 
were afterwards received, rewarded and honored, 



268 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

were originally rejected, scorned and brutally dealt 
with, from the common insult on the street to the 
bodily pain and anguish on the cross. So the common 
son of nature, that to-day earns his bread by shouting 
at the top of his voice in preaching the gospel of 
Christ, would have been one of the first to have cried, 
" Crucify him ! crucify him!" had his bread in Christ's 
time depended on it. 

56. The salvation or loss of the soul depends upon 
the moral or evil nature that the possessor has, not 
upon an empty belief that it will be rewarded or pun- 
ished. Theology maintains that, in order to be saved, 
the belief 'must exist, taking it for granted that a man 
cannot lead a moral course of life unless he believe in 
its doctrines. Now, if morality had no better basis to 
rest its principles upon than an empty religious belief, 
it would have fallen ages before this, and, with it, all 
civilization. The natural character, whether it be 
good or bad, is not here taken into consideration; and 
all that is relied upon to make man a moral being is 
in putting him in a state of fear of future punishment 
or into a state of desire for future reward. It is this 
vague thinking of theologians who want to answer 
everything that occurs in nature, that makes it im- 
possible for them to account for all the souls of good 
men who existed before Christianity, and all the souls 
of good and moral infidels. With the ancients, mor- 
ality was a system independent of a man's religious 
views; but since Christianity has taken its rise, all 
mankind of Europe have been blindfolded into the 
belief that morality could not exist without the 
Christian religion. Upon such reasoning there is no 
morality in Asia. 



RELIGION. 269 

As to salvation, there is but one of two ways that 
can be followed, the one is that of virtue, and the 
other is that of vice ; they both have their respective 
terminations. The effects of the laws of nature are a 
fixed fact, independent of what a man's belief in 
regard to them may be ; if a man's fate, either as an 
animal or as a moral being, were dependent upon 
what he believes, considering what the belief of the 
common man is, his position in the world would be a 
very deplorable one, as it even is. 

Certainly,belief is necessary in the earnest search 
after morality and salvation, otherwise it would not 
be sought, and it is doubtless true that it is this 
genuine belief that religion has reference to, but it is 
not this belief that theologians exact from their 
followers. 

57. I have never been able to understand upon what 
reasoning it was, that the theologians could justify 
themselves in preaching Christ's Gospel for money. 
Not even the philosophers as such are allowed to re- 
ceive money, and if they do take it, they are immedi- 
ately called sophists. Even lawyers would not be 
justified in receiving money for their services, if this 
profession had not become a public necessity in our 
state of civilization, and it is very questionable even 
then. To preach the Gospel for money is the best 
evidence that religion has become a business, and has 
ceased to be a religion as such. Is it not more like a 
true follower of Christ, and does it not better serve as 
an example for the adherents, to earn a living, which 
needs to be only scanty, in a more honest way, or re- 
ceive money as a charitable gift, and thereby assume 
a little of the dignity and divinity that the genuine 



270 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

Christian must necessarily have ? But to pre ct the 
Gospel once or twice a week, and for it draw a hand- 
some salary, is much more easy and more according to 
the fashion of the age, than to rely on wild honey and 
locusts for victuals, as John the Baptist did. But here 
it is as in all cases where mankind have to pay him 
the most who knows the least; for if it he taken right 
ly, it will be seen that these men, as a general thing, 
are not fit and capable of discoursing on the immor- 
tality of the soul and a God ; there is hardly one in a 
hundred that is even capable of discoursing on a prop- 
er mode of life. 

58. Christ's houses of prayer and devotion have be- 
come to be miserable theatres and opera houses. It is 
only necessary to visit on a Sunday a church support- 
ed by a rich congregation, to be able to see that the 
devotion that Christ teaches to worship the Creator of 
all goodness and beneficence, is actually there convert- 
ed into operatic singing; regular singers are employed, 
used as actors, receive a high salary, and who, in 
some cases, even belong to an entirely different creed. 
Thus it is, that the very day (Sunday) onVhich religion 
teaches man shall rest from his toils and labors, and 
which shall be devoted to his God, is used to carry on 
the worst kind of prostitution of Christ's Gospel. 

Christ himself had no place to lay his head, but his 
Gospel has been, and continues to be, a very conven- 
ient trade for thousands to earn a comfortable and 
even luxurious living by; somebody is getting hand- 
some profits by his misfortunes and martyrdom. 

59. The difference between the God of the religious 
man, as he calls himself, and the God of the genuine 



RELIGION. 271 

Christian, is, that the former sits on his money bags, 
and the latter sits on the throne of grace. 

60. The people in general, whose chief employment 
lies in obtaining the necessaries of life, when these are 
satisfied, allow their imagination to carry them into a 
region that their vanity persuades them is eternal 
bliss; seeking nothing but happiness in this world, it 
is entirely natural that they should also expect it after 
death, especially when they consider that genuine 
happiness is not to be found in this world; a man 
who is more or less virtuous, would suppose that what 
he could not possess in this life, he ought to have in 
another life. There is nothing therefore that is so at- 
tractive to man as happiness; this is well and better 
seen in people who are continually seeking happiness 
through pleasure, for in old age, finding that the satis- 
faction of the world is nothing, they try to make it 
good by seeking the satisfaction of heaven, and thus 
become as great devotees to religion now as probably 
before they were distant from it. 

According to vulgar interpretation, Mohammed 
promises in heaven, among others, the highest earthly 
pleasure— sexual pleasure, — and he therefore has so 
many adherents, for it is on pleasure that the common 
mind is fixed. If a correct interpretation, however, 
were given to the Koran in regard to the passage that 
promises this, Mohammed, doubtless, would not have 
so many beleivers in it, because their animal desires 
would not be flattered by it, for he can hardly mean, 
that heaven would engage itself in such filthy pleas- 
ures as originate in this world. 

The common man draws his heavenly bliss from his 
earthly happiness. Then, if heaven be superhuman, 



272 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

it floes not lie within reach of the human intellect to 
comprehend its beatitude. And if it be a fact that 
its beatitude is consistent with the stretch of the hu- 
man intellect, to go there can certainly not be a great 
advantage over the advantages of this world. But 
above all, what has man done in tins world, that he 
should receive everlasting bliss? 

61. Every man follows that religion that is best 
suited for his individual character, and as nature 
knows his character better than he does himself, his 
religion, so far as any religion may be necessary for 
his character, is fixed in him by nature, as all his 
acts are. 

What the immediate service of religion is to moral- 
ity, we know — civilization 5 but in what manner a 
particular religion may be most advantageous to a 
particular people, or a particular individual, we do 
not know. When the individual or a people change 
in their surroundings, their religion changes. The 
Chinese, who have always remained stationary in 
their country, have changed their religion the least ; 
whilst the European, who migrates from one country 
to another, does not know of a religion, but of relig- 
ions. This is all more or less owiDg to climate and 
the country in general in which a people live. 

It follows very clearly from this that, of all the 
religions that have been established, and that are 
continually undergoing changes, no particular one of 
them is correct, and all the others false ; one people 
is as much an object on which God should exercise 
his good-will as any other. Therefore the different re- 
ligions from the most uncivilized to the most enlight- 



RELIGION. 273 

ened, is not a matter of laughter, but it is actually a 
matter of practical wisdom. 

Of all Europeans, the Jews have changed their re- 
ligion the least, although it is true that they have 
scattered themselves nearly over the whole globe; but 
this is probably owing to the fact that their nature 
being so repellant, other nationalities have never felt 
it desirous to have such close intercourse with them 
as would spread their influence over them; but to the 
extent that such influence has been had, their religion 
has also changed. 

62. That the Christian religion has salutary effects 
in leading the common people more or less from vice 
and keeping them from evil, besides the inward con- 
solation and satisfaction that the true Christian feels, 
is a truth that I would no more deny, than I would 
the fact that even in the worst and most vicious man 
there are some good characteristics. But that this 
vicious man is charitable or humane, is no evidence 
that he is a fit member of society ; he has probably 
stolen the money with which he is charitable, and can 
therefore very well afford to be so ; his vicious char- 
acter necessarily forces some good traits on him, 
otherwise he would be completely rejected. So with 
the church, its good material standing enables it to 
be exteriorly effectual in its morals, its members here- 
in finding their own happiness. But take away this 
pecuniary prosperity, and ask theologians and their 
most devoted adherents, to sacrifice their personal 
interests, estates, liberty, even their lives to propa- 
gate Christ's Gospel, and then you will see St. Peter's 
and St. Paul's cathedrals, in spite of the faithful work 
of the mason, crumble into dust. 
17 



274 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

Look over the history of that part of the world 
where the Christian religion prevails ; see the blood 
that has been shed in its holy cause, as it is called; 
every revolution since the Christian era can probably 
be more or less traced for its cause to the Christian 
religion. Not even the vainest patriotic Frenchman 
will so quickly grasp the sword to save his country, 
as the religious man will to defend his religion and 
faith. Has the Christian religion then been the cause 
of more peace on earth, than it has of war and private 
contention and strife ? 

6 Has the religious gown a greater effect on the 
youth in inculcating virtue and moral conduct, than 
the immoral conduct of which it itself is known to be 
guilty, has a bad effect? Have not the hood and 
cowl, especially during the middle ages, when the 
church was at its highest, so disgraced themselves 
that their mere appearance raises more a suspicion 
and doubt of their integrity, than they impose respect? 
The whole monk system, sublime and grand as it is 
for those whom nature instituted into it, was known 
in former centuries to be a source of secret moral de- 
pravity and indolence, and its followers were used for 
nothing but revolutionary purposes. 

Take the results, both good and bad, of the church, 
weigh them, consider which of the two has the greater 
effect on the common people, who are so unfit to rule 
themselves, and therefore have to depend upon exam- 
ples. Is it not true that the vices and evils, such as 
revolutions, wars, private quarrels and contentions, 
extorting the last cent from a man (to support and 
maintain religious idlers and vagabonds), adultery ? 
lying, idling, cheating and all other offences with 
which men of a religious character more or less stand 



RELIGION. 275 

convicted in the history of the world, (because I am 
not only attacking the Christian religion, but every 
system based on superstition and error), have proba- 
bly a more damning effect on the youth growing up 
and the rest of mankind, than that religion has a sal- 
utary effect ? This effect is so much the greater be- 
cause it proceeds from religious men, than it is when 
it proceeds from men not under religious restraint. 

The moralist, on the other hand, aware of the con- 
tinual snares that beset a man in this world, lays out, 
as Christ did, a moral course of life as is best for the 
individual ; teaches him that to be moral, requires him 
to be continually on his guard, and that the merely 
putting a hood or cowl on his head, is not sufficiently 
cladding himself with steel to protect his weakness of 
flesh against worldly temptations, as the religious 
man thinks it is. Then if a man momentarily do 
yield to Venus, Bacchus or Mammon, it is pardon- 
able. 

It is only the moralist, the Christ, the Buddha, that 
nature produces as saviors, after she has let her sons 
fall into a state of moral decay, that can save man 
from returning to the brute state; and as these are so 
extremely limited in the number of millions of human 
beings, the best system must eventually become mis- 
used and abused, although there are more or less faith- 
ful followers belonging to every creed whose good in- 
fluence on the common man is undeniable. 

63. Schopenhauer says rightly, that, to show a man 
that this religion is based on error and falsehood, is 
taking nothing from him, but is giving him something, 
namely, truth. Religion, as it is called, having volun- 
tarily placed itself in its present position, it becomes 



276 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

the duty of the moralist to show what its dangerous 
consequences are, and thus it will be enabled to take 
another course, by rearing a structure based not on 
national customs and individual interests, but on 
moral principles. 

64. People of religion have a manner of accounting 
for a bad or evil man's sudden or horrible death by 
attributing it to his irreligious character. The charge 
in such a case that such an individual has met his fate 
in such a manner because his course of life was an im- 
moral one, may be correct, based on the general princi- 
ples in the laws of nature in regard to accountability 
as to all our actions to nature. But to see this far 
theologians never were, and never will be, sufficiently 
gifted. 

For what reason nature may destroy a particular 
man in a particularly brutal manner, cannot be dis- 
cerned any more than it can be seen for what pur- 
pose she incited him to be vicious and evil, they all 
being her own acts, it being indifferent by or through 
whom they are performed, or in what manner. 

Besides, we do not see that the good part of man- 
kind are spared from cruelty either ; on the contrary, 
we are in the habit of saying that God punishes those 
he loves. 

65. It is amusing to see how science has, since the 
time of Bacon, gradually been making inroads into re- 
ligion, and leaving it behind to find its way along as 
best it could. As soon as some scientific problem 
has been solved, demonstrating that nature proceeds 
in her course, on principles wholly contradicting those 
of theology, we find the gentlemen of this pleasant 



RELIGION. 277 

and easy profession following close behind, patching 
up their much trodden road as well as their scanty 
material will allow. 

If theology be based on principles of actual divini- 
ty, and therefore be not the work of man, the church 
need have no fear, because, on such reasoning, if it 
required something greater than the human intellect 
to rear the structure, it would also require more 
than human power to overthrow it. But as they see 
that everything is changeable, and that there were 
ages before Christ, and have since been ages, when 
the light of Christian wisdom never shone, they fear, 
and I fear, that their fear is well grounded in sup- 
posing that the age is approaching when the man 
Christ will no longer be worshiped as such, but be 
worshiped as the holy and wise Jesus (Joshua). 

In consequence of philosophy's having undermined 
the church, the different sects are no longer maintain- 
ing that the old structure was properly supported, but 
are quarreling about the distribution of the ruins out 
of which to form a new one, too blind to see that 
everything based on mere human speculation is not 
lasting, and must therefore fall as well as the first. 
But, probably, the argument with themselves is, that 
the agony caused in the meantime is compensated by 
the material prosperity that the body receives through 
it. And, taking the world in a business sense, they 
are undoubtedly correct. 

66. Has any other religion been so much disputed 
and controverted as the Christian religion ! 

67. Sleep being a short death, whether the idea of 
the immortality of the soul, or that man will resur- 
rect, do not originate from that I 



278 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

68. Everybody appears to be religious, but nobody 
wants to be a Christian. Evidently to be a Christian 
means something entirely different from merely ap- 
pearing to be religious. 

69. As we laugh at the plurality of the gods of an- 
tiquity, if taken in earnest, so will posterity laugh at 
the Old Testament theory of the universe, if taken in 
earnest. 

70. God belongs to the whole universe j what right, 
therefore, has the Christian religion to assume him 
for themselves only, by placing Christ, who is recog- 
nized chiefly in Europe and America, next to him, and 
thus excluding all pagan nations, who are God's favor- 
ites as well, from his especial favor ? The impudence 
of the proposition is characteristic of the religion. 

71. If a man have actual thoughts, his eloquence 
follows as a matter of course ; studied eloquence is 
therefore evidence of lack of thoughts. Christ is very 
correct in admonishing his disciples not to study be- 
forehand as to what they are to say, but to leave it to 
the occasion. It is not upon the principle of this 
admonition of Christ's that his Gospel is preached 
now-a-days; for want of thoughts, the theologian, to 
make an impression on his hearers, resorts to elo- 
quence that has been trained into him either by him- 
self or an elocutionist. In most cases the manner of 
delivery is more studied than the subject matter. 

AYhen an institution is to be kept on its legs by 
resorting to such artificial means, it is evident that it 
is not worthy of very great respect. From this it is 
evident that religion has sunk as low as the politics 



RELIGION. 279 

of the rabble, that, in order to be able to obtain their 
votes, require the popular speaker to make efforts at 
eloquence that the genuine statesman would blush at. 
Religion, according to its original signification, is 
something sublime, and must therefore be taught 
with all earnestness and sincerity, as coming from the 
soul and not from the tongue, and when it ceases to 
come from that source, it ceases to be religion, and 
becomes hypocrisy. 

72. How can men be said to be religious, when it is 
considered that they never meditate on the subjects 
of God and the soul ? And yet is not this the class 
of people that religion has as its adherents ? for those 
who do actually meditate on God (the Good ) and the 
soul (Eternity), will not confess to an institution that, 
at its best, is but a practical machine. 

73. How much veneration can be said is had for 
the Scriptures, when it is considered that those who 
teach from them, those who read them, those who 
manufacture them, and those who deal in them, value 
them only to the extent of the material profit that 
they expect to derive from them ? 

74. The Protestant theologians inveigh against po- 
lygamy, but by what right or authority according to 
the letter, especially the spirit, of Christianity, are 
they themselves entitled to a single wife ? To be a 
genuine follower of Christ, even to have a single wife 
is a moral sin, because this is serving one's bestiality. 
Christ regards our life, as it is, a sin in itself, as an 
existence that it were better, if it were not; now, by 
having intercourse with a wife, and thus begetting 



280 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

children and thereby prolonging the bestial existence, 
is simply striving and working directly against his 
moral sentiments. St. Paul directly forbids marriage, 
even as regards the people in general, and allows it in 
them only as a matter of preventing a greater sin, 
and it is only to this end that Christ allows of a single 
wife. The Eomish religion is a much truer follower 
of Christ in this respect, and, also, in regard to Mam- 
mon, than the Protestant religion is. The Moham- 
medan religion is a filthy religion, it is a true follower 
of the Old Testament, it " increases and multiplies ; w 
its founder regarded woman only as a means to satisfy 
his beastly desires ; it lacks the purity and holiness 
that surrounds the religions of Christ and of Gauda- 
ma, who abandoned his wife, if that of the latter 
can be called a religion at all in the strict sense of 
the word. 

75. Although the Protestant theologians preach 
against a plurality of gods, yet they and the ordinary 
people can be said to worship three Deities : Cupid, 
Mammon and God. God himself takes in the last 
place ; he gets so much as the worship of the others 
have left— the remnant. 

76. Being religious, as it is called, is no evidence 
of a moral character, for as religion is followed mere- 
ly because another so dictates it, such a man can 
as easily be led astray when the opposite tempts him ; 
what God easily acquires, that the Devil can as easily 
deprive him of. 

77. How can the Old Testament be called " holy," 
when it is considered that Eance, the reformer of the 



RELIGION. 281 

order of Trappists, forbade, and very correctly, cer- 
tain parts of it to be read by nuns? And how can 
woman be said to ever reach tlie highest state of re- 
ligion when her virtue is of such a delicate nature as 
to have such parts forbidden ? 

78. Christ can not be said to be meant by the pro- 
phecies of the Old Testament, because they had 
reference probably even more to a political than to a 
moral deliverer of the Jewish people, who were al- 
ways in subjection. This is verified by the fact that in 
this light the Jews themselves regarded Christ, for 
when he answered them " JKender unto Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's," they seem to have had no 
further use for him. 

79. It is not the consequences of death, in the relig- 
ious sense, that is feared, but it is the means, the pain 
that is caused to superinduce it. Death itself is to 
many very welcome, and even sought. 

80. Just as the realization of a misfortune is gene- 
rally by far not equal to the fear of its expectation, so 
is death itself not equal to the fear of its approach. 
It is in this as it is in poverty; the rich man seeing 
that poverty will come from the losing of his wealth, 
from this imagines that his condition when poor will 
be one of complete want and destitution, in fact star- 
vation; but when it has arrived, he generally finds, 
to his own surprise, that nature has full}' equipped 
him also for the struggle for existence, and as the 
necessaries of life are limited, his care to obtain 
and preserve them is also limited ; he often actually 
finds himself, in the end, in a much more peaceable 



282 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

state of mind, and wonders why be did not even seek 
this state of affairs. If such fears were well founded, 
the greatest part of mankind would be absolutely 
miserable, because the greatest part of mankind are 
actually poor, some even in want. 

So it is with death ; if the fear of death were well 
founded, the horrible condition of those that have 
preceded us, could not be imagined; but they are 
simply where they belong, their substance and spirit 
working in the element for which each is suited and 
adapted. So when Death has actually arrived, his 
presence is as much in order as our birth. It is as 
natural that we should resist death, as it was that we 
should, without its being apparent, resist birth; in 
both cases we were unwilling to change our condition, 
but the force from behind compelled submission. 

Therefore confront Death as you would your enemy, 
with coolness and deliberation, and you will find that 
he is not so horrible as you supposed; on the contra- 
ry, he will show himself, as men do in such cases — 
he will be your best friend, — as I believe all those 
that have preceded us, would admit 

81. The dog is probably the only animal in the 
world, that fully obeys Christ's commandment that we 
shall love our enemies as ourselves, for no matter 
how great an enemy his master is to him, yet he will 
love him. 

82. The Eoman religion is the religion of business, 
and the Protestant religion is the religion of fashion. 
Did their founder suppose that there was anything 
like this to be the result of his teachings ? 



RELIGION. 283 

83. A religion that teaches that only its followers 
are sure of salvation, is no religion at all; neither did 
Christ preach any such religion. 

84. God probably conies from Good ; it is similar in 
the German language, Gott and Gut] it means the 
ruling power of nature, for whatever is proper accord- 
ing to natural laws, is good. The old German work 
called " Die Deutsche Theologie " very beautifully 
identifies God with Good, and Good with God. 

Now the saying of Christ, who was always only 
seeking the Good, that what God has put together, 
let no man put asunder, means that when two lovers 
are by nature inclined towards one another, and by 
that become connected, this is simply in order, 
according to the laws of the universe (God) and the 
prosperity of the state, and should, therefore, not be 
interfered with ; and, especially as Christ had refer- 
ence to it, it leaves the relations to one another in a 
peaceful and harmonious state. He did not mean that, 
merely because a man had complied with the law of 
the land, namely, in being legally married, this 
made marriage advisable or recommendable; this is 
a mere ceremony that the law requires to preserve 
the order and regulation of the state. 

85. The Christian religion as it is taught, is an insti- 
tution that can accommodate itself to all practical and 
political purposes ; for instance, before the emancipa- 
tion of the American negro, it was maintained that 
he had no soul; since his emancipation, it is main- 
tained that he has a soul. How can it be expected 
that an institution that will trifle with one of its high- 
est principles, that on the immortality of the soul, as 



284 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

a sophist would with the principles of reason merely 
to gain his cause, can be an institution of the highest 
morality? 

86. B thought that, if his own wishes are to be 
consulted, and the human family is to look and act 
anything in a future life as they do in this, he should 
prefer not meeting them again. 

87. Even death is trifled with ; what our good sense 
or our poverty forbade us during life, we often get 
when dead, namely, pomp and elegance. But I fear 
that it does not generally arise from love and affec- 
tion for us during lifetime, but because our death is 
a source of rejoicing, at least, considerable satisfac- 
tion, to those that survive us. 

88. Christianity: Uprightness, Humility, Charity, 
Poverty, Chastity. Where are they to be found ? 

89. God declines to disclose himself to men ; he is 
right, for if he did, he would have no honor in his 
own country. 

90. Beligion is like paper money, which has value 
only so far as the credit of the country in which it is 
current, is good. 

Morality is like gold and silver, which have a 
standard value in all parts of the world. 

91. The Christian makes Christ his God ; the Bud- 
dhist makes Buddha his God; the Brahmin makes 
Brahma his God, and so it is with other religious 
systems. Thus it follows that every religion has 



RELIGION. 285 

a God according to its own taste and manufacture ; if 
lie be not at first taken as the original Creator of tlie 
universe, from time immemorial, lie becomes to be 
regarded as a part of such a Being, or is even consid- 
ered in an indefinite and obscure light to be this 
Being itself. It is evident from this that every relig- 
ious creed adopts, as its Supreme Being, an object 
that is best suited and adapted to its particular 
needs, wants and conveniences, and, therefore, for all 
nations to undertake, among themselves, to be able to 
agree on a particular Being to be worshiped, would 
be a far greater impossibility than for them to be able 
to agree on what would be a proper temporal ruler to 
govern them. 

92. Either the accountability follows that has been 
maintained in a previous part of this work,* or the 
result of a good or bad or indifferent act is continued 
in a following existence, or the act itself is a result of 
a previous existence. It appears from all religious 
theories that the Good always has a tendency up- 
wards, Heaven, as it is called; and the Bad a 
tendency downwards, Hell. This undoubtedly arises 
from the fact that a future state is based on reason 
judging from facts of a present state; and as the 
Intellect, from which follows the Good, is the cause 
of our being elevated amongst our fellow men, and 
Folly, from which follows the Bad, is the cause of our 
being debased, it is entirely consistent that the 
Intellect should draw the same conclusion as to the 
consequences in a future existence. So, that the soul 
of a man that has elevated himself entirely beyond 

*208, 8. 



286 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

the evil and sinful in this world, will be liberated and 
freed from a future animal existence, and will become 
Nirvana, or enter Heaven, has as much of a psychol- 
ogical satisfaction about it as the theory of Heaven 
and Hell of Christ has. What can be safely assumed 
is, that Metempsychosis, as well as the true Christian 
theory, teaches that our condition, either of the pres- 
ent or of the future and, it can be said, of the past, is 
always in proportion to our character, and whatever 
particular images the founders, or their followers, 
may have used is in an allegorical sense, which they 
adopted as a necessary means to convey a meaning ; 
so when, for instance, they state the particular kind 
of animal that the soul that continues on in its trans- 
migration will enter into, it must be taken figura- 
tively. 

93. Christ and G-audama were spiritual brothers, 
nationality and time to the contrary notwithstanding, 
and I can therefore not help but believe that as the 
former may have been a follower of the latter, wheth- 
er consciously or unconsciously, in certain respects, 
but especially as they both have the highest princi- 
ples of humanity, their theories of God and immortal- 
ity are, fundamentally, the same. 

The Greek authors were well acquainted with 
Metempsychosis ; they had doubtless brought it from 
Egypt, where it very probably had been brought from 
India, and through the Greeks it is probable that 
Christ had gotten his thoughts of immortality and 
resurrection. 

The Trinity seems to be without doubt derived from 
the Hindu Trimurti ; even the words themselves have 
an affinity. It is even evident that the religion and 



RELIGION. 287 

certain laws of Moses are of Hindu origin.* We 
therefore find that all mankind are but one family in 
matters of religion and morality as well as physically, 
governed and controlled by but one fate. 

94. Without doubt Metempsychosis is the oldest 
religious theory on record 5 it has for centuries pre- 
vailed in the Orient, the original seat of mankind, 
and, even with the modern thinker, in spite of all the 
progress of the human family in science, it is the best 
solution that he can make as to the immortality of the 
soul. It is an explanation, so far as explanation is at 
all possible, of what man and other existences were 
before their birth, what they now are, and what they 
will be. This, the theory of a souPs arising probably 
only simultaneously with reason in man, does not do. 
But so much of the Christian theory of an individual 
soul's being accountable for all its actions, undoubt- 
edly rests on the same principles as Metempsychosis ; 
it corresponds and agrees, in general terms, beauti- 
fully with the theory of the resurrection that Christ 
teaches. 



* Among the lowest class of Hindus, the Sudras, if a man 
dies leaving a widow and no child, his brother is authorized to 
propagate on her. Where else but from a similar source could 
the law of Moses mentioned in Mark 12, 19, have been taken ? 
So the prohibition to eat swine flesh, and that of certain other 
animals, must have a Hindu origin. Vide Khode, Ueber relig- 
ioese Bildung der Hindus, vol. 2, p. 391. Also the custom of 
being in one's bare feet whilst in the performance of certain 
religious duties must have its predecessor in the fact that a 
Hindu is not allowed to wear his shoes whilst attending to his 
religion, or whilst eating. Vide same, vol. 2, p. 437. Even 
the I AM THAT I AM is similar to the definition of Brahma. 



288 A TREATISE ON MAN. 

It is such a satisfactory theory that, were it not for 
its oriental origin, and the fact that it is not under- 
stood, and because it is not apparently the same as 
Christ's, which has probably only a different complex- 
ion because of the Jewish nature of its founder, it 
would be instantly accepted and propagated; the 
spirit of the God-head and the almost nothing of the 
immortality of the soul that the Old Testament does 
teach, both of which Christ himself seems to have 
carefully ignored, have thrown such a cloud over his 
doubtlessly-correct theory that it will require ages to 
eradicate it from the minds of common men. 

Metempsychosis is a consoling thought; it tells 
man that he existed before birth, and not that he 
came from nothing; it tells man that he is a necessary 
part of the universe and, consequently, will always 
exist with it. Its being recognized so generally 
throughout the civilized world, arises from the fact 
that its principles agree better with the principles of 
natural laws, because it relates to every existence, 
than do the principles of a particular divinity that 
has only special reference to man. 









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